The Marauders read Goblet
by young sev
Summary: The Marauders read the fourth harry potter book in a hope to change the future.
1. Chapter 1: discovery

**disclaimer:** I do not own harry potter and i make no profit from writing this

**authors note: **i chose to start at book four because i disliked trying to write the first three in the series.

**Chapter one: discovery**

It was a perfectly normal day at Hogwarts school of witchcraft and wizardry and four best friends were chilling out in Gryffindor fifth year's dormitories. These four boys were known as the Marauders. The first marauder was James potter. James was a tall, thin man who wore glasses, with hazel-brown eyes and untidy black hair that stuck up at the back. James was rarely out of the company of his best friend and fellow Marauder Sirius Black. Sirius was a tall, well-built, darkly handsome man with long, lustrous black hair, striking grey eyes, and an air of "casual elegance". These two boys saw themselves as the leaders of the Marauders. Another of the four Marauders was Remus Lupin. Remus was wearing an extremely shabby set of wizard's robes that had been darned in several places. He looked ill and exhausted. Though young, his light brown hair was flecked with grey. And he had 3 long scars across his face, where he had been turned into a werewolf. The fourth and final Marauder was Peter Pettigrew. Peter was an extremely short boy at only 4 foot in height; He had mousy brown hair, and, despite his shortness, was quite chubby. At this particular moment each of them were sitting at a desk hurriedly scribbling down as much as they could remember about healing potions before their next lesson with professor Slughorn in an hour.

"finished!" Exclaimed Remus gloatingly "all two foot done."

"Shut up Moony!" shouted Sirius "I'm trying to concentr..."

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

The four boys all jumped up in surprise when something heavy popped into existence in the middle of the desk.

"What in the name of merlins left testicle was that?" asked Peter, who was currently on the floor, having fell over when backing away from the desk.

James reached over the desk and examined the package that had appeared.

"It's just a book, wormy don't crap yourself." James said calmly

"oh" Peter said while getting up "what's it about?"

James examined the cover and looked confused.

"I think it's about a relative of mine, but I don't know any harry in my family."

"Check the date in the cover, maybe he is like your great grandfather or something" Sirius said.

James examined the first page and fainted. The other three ran over to help him up.

"James are you ok? Why did you faint?" Remus asked while Sirius examined the book.

"I think it's from the future, the publishing date is 2000." Sirius explained.

James got up off the ground and said "I think... I think it might be about my son."

"Wow" they all gasped.

"Well from the front cover I would say your son plays quidditch with dragons!" said Sirius jokingly.

"WHAT!" screamed James.

Remus grabbed the book from Sirius and opened it.

"Hey there's a note" Remus said taking it out.

Dear Marauders,

This book is from the future. It depicts the fourth year of prongs' son harry's education at Hogwarts. You are to take it to the seventh floor corridor, across the wall from the tapestry of barnabus the Barmy. You will find a door to a special room there. In this room you will be able to read this book without being disturbed by anyone. Also in this room you will find that time stops when you enter it so you can read the book without anyone noticing you are missing. You will learn some disturbing things about the future in the book, but I ask that you don't judge your friends on mistakes they haven't made yet. It is my hope that reading this book will help you change the future for the better.

Yours truly

H. J. G.

PS. more people might join you as you reach certain points in the book

The marauders all read the note slowly taking in the information they had just discovered.

"Well, what are we waiting for?" asked Sirius when he had finished reading.

Sirius, James and peter ran for the door.

"WAIT!" Remus shouted. "It says about friends future mistakes."

"so" Sirius said

"So I think one of us might do something the others don't like in the future" Remus answered.

"Oh" Sirius said

" I think we should swear right now to not do anything when we find out who does what and only make sure whatever bad decisions come up we make sure they don't happen as we grow up." Remus explained calmly.

"Agreed" said the other three.

All four boys ran out of the common room and all the way to the room.


	2. Chapter 2: the riddle house

Disclaimer: anything you recognise isn't mine it belongs to jkr and i make no profit from it.

**Chapter 2: ****t****he Riddle ****h****ouse**

The four boys entered the room looking around. The room they entered was quite small and had four chairs in the semicircle around a fireplace. The walls were decorated with red and gold wall paper.

The marauders all went to sit down and then Remus opened the book.

"**Chapter one: The riddle house"** read Remus

**The villagers of ****l****ittle ****h****angleton still called it 'the Riddle House', even though it had been may years since the riddle family had lived there.**

"What does this have to do with my son?" asked James

"If you let me read I'm sure we will find out."

**It stood on a hill overlooking the village, some of its windows boarded, tiles missing from the roof, and ivy spreading unchecked over its face. Once a fine-looking manor, and easily the largest and grandest building for miles around, the ****r****iddle house was now damp, derelict and unoccupied.**

"Sounds nice" joked Sirius.

**The Little Hangletons all agreed that the old house was "creepy." Half a century ago, something strange and horrible had happened there, something that the older inhabitants of the village still liked to discuss when topics for gossip were scarce. The story had been picked over so many times, and had been embroidered in so many places, that nobody was quite sure what the truth was anymore. Every version of the tale, however, started in the same place: Fifty years before, at daybreak on a fine summer's morning when the Riddle House had still been well kept and impressive, a maid had entered the drawing room to find all three Riddles dead.**

"Hmm" wondered Remus.

"What?" Asked James.

"I think this book has to do with You-Know-Who!" Remus answered

"What?" screamed James.

"Well these murders happened fifty years before this book was published and that was about when Voldemort first surfaced." Replied Remus.

"Why would Voldemort-." Sirius and Remus flinched while Peter let out an audible squeak. "be in a book about my son!"

"he must still be around at these times prongs" answered Sirius darkly.

**The maid had run screaming down the hill into the village and roused as many people as she could.**

"**Lying there with their eyes wide open! Cold as ice! Still in their dinner things!"**

"that sound like Voldemort's work" they all agreed.

**The police were summoned, and the whole of Little Hangleton had seethed with shocked curiosity and ill-disguised excitement. Nobody wasted their breath pretending to feel very sad about the Riddles, for they had been most unpopular. Elderly Mr. and Mrs. Riddle had been rich, snobbish, and rude, and their grown-up son, Tom, had been, if anything, worse. All the villagers cared about was the identity of their murderer — for plainly; three apparently healthy people did not all drop dead of natural causes on the same night.**

**The Hanged Man, the village pub, did a roaring trade that night; the whole village seemed to have turned out to discuss the murders. They were rewarded for leaving their firesides when the Riddles' cook arrived dramatically in their midst and announced to the suddenly silent pub that a man called Frank Bryce had just been arrested.**

"So maybe it's not Voldemort! Breathed James hopefully.

"**Frank!" cried several people. "Never!"**

**Frank Bryce was the Riddles' gardener. He lived alone in a run-down cottage on the grounds of the Riddle House. Frank had come back from the war with a very stiff leg and a great dislike of crowds and loud noises, and had been working for the Riddles ever since.**

**There was a rush to buy the cook drinks and hear more details.**

"**Always thought he was odd," she told the eagerly listening villagers, after her fourth sherry. "Unfriendly, like. I'm sure if I've offered him a cuppa once, I've offered it a hundred times. Never wanted to mix, he didn't."**

"That doesn't mean he's a murderer." Sirius cried outraged.

"yeah, maybe he's just not a people person" agreed James.

"There must be some evidence or they wouldn't have arrested him" argued Remus

"**Ah, now," said a woman at the bar, "he had a hard war, Frank. He likes the quiet life. That's no reason to —"**

**"Who else had a key to the back door, then?" barked the cook. "There's been a spare key hanging in the gardener's cottage far back as I can remember! Nobody forced the door last night! No broken windows! All Frank had to do was creep up to the big house while we was all sleeping…"**

"If everyone was sleeping someone could have stolen the key" Remus growled at the accusations "although it's starting to look more like a wizards work"

**The villagers exchanged dark looks.**

"**I always thought that he had a nasty look about him, right enough," grunted a man at the bar.**

"**War turned him funny, if you ask me," said the landlord.**

"**Told you I wouldn't like to get on the wrong side of Frank, didn't I, Dot?" said an excited woman in the corner.**

"**Horrible temper," said Dot, nodding fervently. "I remember when he was a kid…"**

**By the following morning, hardly anyone in Little Hangleton doubted that Frank Bryce had killed the Riddles. But over in the neighbouring town of Great Hangleton, in the dark and dingy police station, Frank was stubbornly repeating, again and again, that he was innocent, and that the only person he had seen near the house on the day of the Riddles' deaths had been a teenage boy, a stranger, dark-haired and pale. Nobody else in the village had seen any such boy, and the police were quite sure Frank had invented him.**

"oooohhhh! Mini voldy" chuckled Sirius excitedly.

"creepy" muttered Peter

**Then, just when things were looking very serious for Frank, the report on the Riddles' bodies came back and changed everything. The police had never read an odder report. A team of doctors had examined the bodies and had concluded that none of the Riddles had been poisoned, stabbed, shot, strangles, suffocated, or (as far as they could tell) harmed at all. In fact (the report continued, in a tone of unmistakable bewilderment), the Riddles all appeared to be in perfect health — apart from the fact that they were all dead.**

"so that's what it looks like to muggles." Said Remus thinking out loud.

**The doctors did note (as though determined to find something wrong with the bodies) that each of the Riddles had a look of terror upon his or her face — but as the frustrated police said, whoever heard of three people being frightened to death?**

"definitely avada kedavra" muttered Remus.

**As there was no proof that the Riddles had been murdered at all, the police were forced to let Frank go.**

"well at least he isn't punished, but I doubt the villagers will be quick to believe the police report." Said Peter happily.

"probably say frank bribed someone to get released" agreed James.

**The Riddles were buried in the Little Hangleton churchyard, and their graves remained objects of curiosity for a while. To everyone's surprise, and amid a cloud of suspicion, Frank Bryce returned to his cottage on the grounds of the Riddle House.**

"**As far as I'm concerned, he killed them, and I don't care what the police say," said Dot in the Hanged Man. "And if he had any decency, he'd leave here, knowing as how we know he did it."**

"Why would he stay there?" asked Sirius.

"It's his home" Remus replied

Sirius still looked confused at that, after his troubled home life.

**But Frank did not leave. He stayed to tend the garden for the next family who lived in the Riddle House, and then the next — for neither family stayed long.**

"Voldemort probably cursed it so only he could live there."Remus informed the others " its the same thing as the defence professors leaving each year."

**Perhaps it was partly because of Frank that the new owners said there was a nasty feeling about the place, which, in the absence of inhabitants, started to fall into disrepair.**

**The wealthy man who owned the Riddle House these days neither lived there nor put it to any use;**

"Probably Voldemort, he would want to keep it as a possible safe house for death eaters."

**They said in the village that he kept it for "tax reasons," though nobody was very clear what these might be. The wealthy owner continued to pay Frank to do the gardening, however. Frank was nearing his seventy-seventh birthday now, very deaf, his bad leg stiffer than ever, but could be seen pottering around the flower beds in fine weather, even though the weeds were starting to creep up on him, try as he might to suppress them.**

"so Mouldy voldy likes a nice garden" joked Sirius with a light chuckle

**Weeds were not the only things Frank had to contend with either. Boys from the village made a habit of throwing stones through the windows of the Riddle House. They rode their bicycles over the lawns Frank worked so hard to keep smooth. Once or twice, they broke into the old house for a dare. They knew that old Frank's devotion to the house and the grounds amounted almost to an obsession, and it amused them to see him limping across the garden, brandishing his stick and yelling croakily at them. Frank, for his part, believed the boys tormented him because they, like their parents and grandparents, thought him a murderer. **

"that's just mean He's being punished for a crime he didn't commit."

**So when Frank awoke one night in August and saw something very odd up at the old house, he merely assumed that the boys had gone one step further in their attempts to punish him.**

"I don't like the sound of this."

"Why not he might be able to get the boys punished for this?" Questioned Peter confusedly

"Peter how stupid are you? It's obviously not going to be the boys and I doubt the police can help him if he goes in" said James.

"Oh" said Peter realising his mistake.

**It was Frank's bad leg that woke him; it was paining him worse than ever in his old age. He got up and limped downstairs into the kitchen with the idea of refilling his hot-water bottle to ease the stiffness in his knee. Standing at the sink, filling the kettle, he looked up at the Riddle House and saw lights glimmering in its upper windows. Frank knew at once what was going on. The boys had broken into the house again, and judging by the flickering quality of the light, they had started a fire.**

**Frank had no telephone, in any case, he had deeply mistrusted the police ever since they had taken him in for questioning about the Riddles' deaths. He put down the kettle at once, hurried back upstairs as fast as his bad leg would allow, and was soon back in his kitchen, fully dressed and removing a rusty old key from its hook by the door. He picked up his walking stick, which was propped against the wall, and set off into the night.**

**The front door of the Riddle House bore no sign of being forced, nor did any of the windows. Frank limped around to the back of the house until he reached a door almost completely hidden by ivy, took out the old key, put it into the lock, and opened the door noiselessly.**

**He let himself into the cavernous kitchen. Frank had not entered it for many years; nevertheless, although it was very dark, he remembered where the door into the hall was, and he groped his way towards it, his nostrils full of the smell of decay, ears pricked for any sound of footsteps or voices from overhead.**

"If I was frank I would eat in the mansion instead of a shack its probably got better facilities so why doesn't he use it?" queried Sirius.

"He probably thinks it's disrespectful to the owner" answered Remus.

**He reached the hall, which was a little lighter owing to the large mullioned windows on either side of the front door, and started to climb the stairs, blessing the dust that lay thick upon the stone, because it muffled the sound of his feet and stick. On the landing, Frank turned right, and saw at once where the intruders were: At the very end of the passage a door stood ajar, and a flickering light shone through the gap, casting a long sliver of gold across the black floor. Frank edged closer and closer, he was able to see a narrow slice of the room beyond.**

**The fire, he now saw, had been lit in the grate. This surprised him. Then he stopped moving and listened intently, for a man's voice spoke within the room; it sounded timid and fearful.**

"**There is a little more in the bottle, My Lord, if you are still hungry."**

"definitely Voldemort the servant is cowering before him

"WHAT!" screeched Remus who had read ahead slightly he shot a glare at Peter before remembering this Peter hadn't done anything. And had agreed to change the bad things in this book.

The other three looked at him wondering what could have possibly made him so angry to give that look to Peter.

Nervously Peter asked "what does it say Remus?"

"I think this is what it means by future mistakes" growled Remus angrily

"Oh, how bad is it?" asked James.

"Very"

"Well we said we wouldn't judge" Peter piped "but can I ask who made this mistake?"

"You Peter"

"Oh...oh no...Am...am I his...his...servant"

Remus just kept reading

"**Later," said a second voice. This too belonged to a man — but it was strangely high-pitched, and cold as a sudden blast of icy wind. Something about that voice made the sparse hairs on the back of Frank's neck stand up. "Move me closer to the fire, Worm tail."**

James and Sirius both jumped up wand pointing at Peter.

"Why the fuck... would you join that twat?" shouted Sirius.

"I... I...don't know" Peter stuttered.

Then he stood up with new found confidence pulled out his wand and said "I Peter `wormtail' Pettigrew solemnly swear on my life and magic that I shall never join the dark lord Voldemort. If I betray this oath may my magic be removed and my life taken."

!

A white light suddenly filled the room and Peter was blasted backwards into his chair.

The light cleared and the four boys all looked at the book where a letter was now sitting a top the current page. Remus opened it and read

"Dear Marauders, congratulations you have already made a step to a better future for everyone. After finishing this chapter I will be sending another person to read with you, I expect you will be surprised by my choice but please accept them and continue to help the future to be brighter. Yours sincerely

H. J. G.

PS. Also in case you don't trust what your friends say the room wont allow any promises made in it to be broken."

Sirius was the first to speak "shit, well at least we know that we can trust Peter not to join you-know-who."

"Good, now can we carry on reading?" asked James who had been silently seething until the end of the letter he was still glaring from book to Peter still fingering his wand.

Remus carried on reading...

**Frank turned his right ear toward the door, the better to hear. There came the clink of a bottle being put down upon some hard surface, and then the dull scraping noise of a heavy chair being dragged across the floor. Frank caught a glimpse of a small man, his back to the door, pushing the chair into place. He was wearing a long black cloak, and there was a bald patch at the back of his head. Then he went out of sight again.**

"HaHAHAHAHa your balding Peter." Sirius laughed trying to lighten the mood.

"**Where is Nagini?" said the cold voice.**

"Who's Nagini?" they all asked to see if any of them new more than themselves.

"**I — I don't know, My Lord," said the first voice nervously. "She set out to explore the house, I think…"**

**"You will milk her before we retire, Wormtail," said the second voice. "I will need feeding in the night. The journey has tired me greatly."**

"Why does Voldemort have to drink milk?"

**Brow furrowed, Frank inclined his good ear still closer to the door, listening very hard. There was a pause, and then the man called Wormtail spoke again.**

"**My Lord, may I ask how long we are going to stay here?"**

"**A week," said the cold voice. "Perhaps longer. The place is moderately comfortable, and the plan cannot proceed yet. It would be foolish to act before the Quidditch World Cup is over."**

James was excited about the mention of the cup, but too nervous about what was happening to say anything.

**Frank inserted a gnarled finger into his ear and rotated it. Owing, no doubt, to a buildup of earwax, he had heard the word "Quidditch," which was not a word at all.**

"Of course it is," James said weakly, nobody even hearing him.

"**The — the Quidditch World Cup, My Lord?" said Wormtail. (Frank dug his finger still more vigorously into his ear.) "Forgive me, but — I do not understand – why should we wait until the World Cup is over?"**

"**Because, fool, at this very moment wizards are pouring into the country from all over the world, and every meddler from the Ministry of Magic will be on duty, on the watch for signs of unusual activity, checking and double-checking identities. They will be obsessed with security, lest the Muggles notice anything. So we wait."**

**Frank stopped trying to clear out his ear. He had distinctly heard the words "Ministry of Magic," "wizards," and "Muggles." Plainly, each of these expressions meant something secret, and Frank could think of only two sorts of people who would speak in code: spies and criminals.**

"This Muggle is rather intelligent," Sirius said.

"Though he still pushes our world aside at least he realized that something not normal is happening here." Added remus

**Frank tightened his hold on his walking stick once more, and listened more closely still.**

"**Your Lordship is still determined, then?" Wormtail said quietly.**

"**Certainly I am determined, Wormtail." There was a note of menace in the cold voice now.**

Everyone in the room shivered.

**A slight pause followed — and the Wormtail spoke, the words tumbling from him in a rush, as though he was forcing himself to say this before he lost his nerve.**

"**It could be done without Harry Potter, My Lord."**

James gasped at this. "Why does Voldemort need my son? what could he possibly want from him?"

**Another pause, more protracted, and then —**

"**Without Harry Potter?" breathed the second voice softly. "I see…"**

"**My Lord, I do not say this out of concern for the boy!" said Wormtail, his voice rising squeakily. "The boy is nothing to me, nothing at all!**

The other three marauders glared at Peter and the small boy shivered at the mention of his future self.

**It is merely that if we were to use another witch or wizard — any wizard — the thing could be done so much more quickly! If you allowed me to leave you for a short while — you know that I can disguise myself most effectively — I could be back here in as little as two days with a suitable person —"**

"**I could use another wizard," said the cold voice softly, "that is true…"**

"**My Lord, it makes sense," said Wormtail, sounding thoroughly relieved now. "Laying hands on Harry Potter would be so difficult, he is so well protected —"**

"Why is harry singled out for protection and why does Voldemort want him when he could use anyone else?" James was thinking out loud

"**And so you volunteer to go and fetch me a substitute? I wonder… perhaps the task of nursing me has become wearisome for you, Wormtail? Could this suggestion of abandoning the plan be nothing more than an attempt to desert me?"**

"**My Lord! I — I have no wish to leave you, none at all —"**

"Wow I actually think you grew some balls wormy, did you just lie to the dark lord ."

"**Do not lie to me!" hissed the second voice. "I can always tell, Wormtail! You are regretting that you ever returned to me. I revolt you. I see you flinch when you look at me, feel you shudder when you touch me…"**

Everyone cheered at this. Everyone now realised Peter would choose not to be with the dark lord and had probably joined in a moment of terror and cowardice. All four friends looked happy that Peter wasn't completely evil

"**No! My devotion to Your Lordship —"**

"Wow another lie wormy, what's gotten into you in the future." Commented James.

"**Your devotion is nothing more than cowardice. You would not be here if you had anywhere else to go. **

"Um... why doesn't he have one of us to escape to?"

"He is probably scared you won't forgive him. " said Peter about his future self

**How am I to survive without you, when I need feeding every few hours? Who is to milk Nagini?"**

"why the dark lord seems to be ill my friends!" laughed Sirius happily

"**But you seem so much stronger, My Lord —"**

"**Liar," breathed the second voice. "I am no stronger, and a few days alone would be enough to rob me of the little health I have regained under your clumsy care. Silence!"**

"Leave Peter, leave him to die" screamed all the marauders.

**Wormtail, who had been sputtering incoherently, fell silent at once. For a few seconds, Frank could hear nothing but the fire crackling. Then the second man spoke once more, in a whisper that was almost a hiss.**

"**I have my reasons for using the boy, as I have already explained to you, and I will use no other.**

"Why what's so important about my son that Voldemort would want him so much?"

**I have waited thirteen years. A few more months will make no difference. As for the protection surrounding the boy, I believe my plan will be effective. All that is needed is a little courage from you, Wormtail — courage you will find, unless you wish to feel the full extent of Lord Voldermort's wrath —"**

"That's not really courage," Peter muttered darkly. " it's the opposite if he was courageous he would be brave enough to leave."

"**My Lord, I must speak!" said Wormtail, panic in his voice now. "All through our journey I have gone over the plan in my head — My Lord, Bertha Jorkin's** **disappearance will not go unnoticed for long, and if we proceed, if I murder —"**

"Who is bertha Jorkins?" asked James.

"isn't she in the year below us at the moment" commented Peter.

"**If?" whispered the second voice." If? If you follow the plan, Wormtail, the Ministry need never know that anyone else has died. You will do it quietly and without fuss; I only wish that I could do it myself, but in my present condition… Come, Wormtail, one more death and our path to Harry Potter is clear. I am not asking you to do it alone. By that time, my faithful servant will have rejoined us —"**

"Who does he mean?" James asked

"**I am a faithful servant," said Wormtail, the merest trace of sullenness in his voice.**

"**Wormtail, I need somebody with brains, somebody whose loyalty has never wavered, and you, unfortunately, fulfil neither requirement."**

"**I found you," said Wormtail, and there was definitely a sulky edge to his voice now. "I was the one who found you. I brought you Bertha Jorkins."**

"**That is true," said the second man, sounding amused. "A stroke of brilliance I would not have thought possible from you, Wormtail — though, if truth be told, you were not aware how useful she would be when you caught her, were you?"**

"**I — I thought she might be useful, My Lord —"**

Remus was really having a difficult time reading this, listening to his friend, try and get Voldemort approval and acceptance, it was just disgusting.

"**Liar," said the second voice again, the cruel amusement more pronounced than ever. "However, I do not deny that her information was invaluable. Without it, I could never have formed our plan, and for that, you will have your reward, Wormtail. I will allow you to perform an essential task for me, one that many of my followers would give their right hands to perform…"**

"That doesn't sound to good" muttered Remus.

"**R-really, My Lord? What —?" Wormtail sounded terrified again.**

"**Ah, Wormtail, you don't want me to spoil the surprise? Your part will come at the very end… but I promise you, you will have the honour of being just as useful as Bertha Jorkins."**

"**You… you…" Wormtail's voice suddenly sounded hoarse, as though his mouth had gone very dry. "You… are going… to kill me too?"**

"Well I deserve to die for what I am doing." Declared Peter boldly

"**Wormtail, Wormtail," said the cold voice silkily, "why would I kill you? I killed Bertha because I had to. She was fit for nothing after my questioning, quite useless. In any case, awkward questions would have been asked if she had gone back to the Ministry with the news that she had met you on her holidays. Wizards who are supposed to be dead would do well not to run into Ministry of Magic witches at wayside inns…"**

"Wait did he say the ministry think your dead Peter?" asked James.

"I sure hope this is explained soon I'm getting confused." Said Peter shaking his head.

**Wormtail muttered something so quietly that Frank could not hear it, but it made the second man laugh — an entirely mirthless laugh, cold as his speech.**

"**We could have modified her memory? But Memory Charms can be broken by a powerful wizard, as I proved when I questioned her. It would be an insult to her memory not to use the information I extracted from her, Wormtail."**

"The sick bastard just likes to kill, why does he even bother to put up pretences?" Sirius said

**Out in the corridor, Frank suddenly became aware that the hand gripping his walking stick was slippery with sweat. The man with the cold voice had killed a woman. He was talking about it without any kind of remorse — with amusement. He was dangerous — a madman. And he was planning more murders — this boy, Harry Potter, whoever he was — was in danger — Frank knew what he must do. Now, if ever, was the time to go to the police.**

"He's a good man," James said sadly, he knew frank wouldn't be getting out of this house alive.

**He would creep out of the house and head straight for the telephone box in the village… but the cold voice was speaking again, and Frank remained where he was, frozen to the spot, listening with all his might.**

"Please, just leave," Peter said trying to will the man to leave.

"**One more murder… my faithful servant at Hogwarts… Harry Potter is as good as mine, Wormtail. It is decided. There will be no more argument. But quiet… I think I hear Nagini…"**

**And the second man's voice changed. He started making noises such as Frank had never heard before; he was hissing and spitting without drawing breath. Frank thought he must be having some sort of fit or seizure.**

**And then Frank heard movement behind him in the dark passageway. He turned to look, and found himself paralyzed with fright. Something was slithering toward him along the dark corridor floor, and as it drew nearer to the sliver of firelight, he realized with a thrill of terror that it was a gigantic snake, at least twelve feet long.**

"Eww he's drinking snake milk

**Horrified, transfixed, Frank stared as its undulating body cut a wide, curving track through the thick dust on the floor, coming closer and closer — What was he to do? The only means of escape was into the room where the two men sat plotting murder, yet if he stayed where he was the snake would surely kill him —**

**But before he had made his decision, the snake was level with him, and then, incredibly, miraculously, it was passing; it was following the spitting, hissing noises made by the cold voice beyond the door, and in seconds, the tip of its diamond-patterned tail had vanished through the gap.**

**There was sweat on Frank's forehead now, and the hand on the walking stick was trembling. Inside the room, the cold voice was continuing to hiss, and Frank was visited by a strange idea, an impossible idea… This man could talk to snakes. Frank didn't understand what was going on. He wanted more than anything to be back in his bed with his hot-water bottle. The problem was that his legs didn't seem to want to move. As he stood there shaking and trying to master himself, the cold voice switched abruptly to English again.**

"**Nagini has interesting news, Wormtail," it said.**

"**In-indeed, My Lord?" said Wormtail.**

"**Indeed, yes," said the voice, "According to Nagini, there is an old Muggle standing right outside this room, listening to every word we say."**

"Damnit," Sirius said bitterly; Frank was a dead man.

"Please run frank I don't want to be a murderer."

"You think Voldemort will make you do it "asked James.

**Frank didn't have a chance to hide himself. There were footsteps and then the door of the room was flung wide open.**

**A short, balding man with graying hair, a pointed nose, and small, watery eyes stood before Frank, a mixture of fear and alarm in his face.**

"**Invite him inside, Wormtail. Where are your manners?" The cold voice was coming from the ancient armchair before the fire, but Frank couldn't see the speaker. The snake, on the other hand, was curled up on the rotting hearth rug, like some horrible travesty of a pet dog.**

Sirius whimpered at the thought of a dead dog.

**Wormtail beckoned Frank into the room. Though still deeply shaken, Frank took a firmer grip on his walking stick and limped over the threshold.**

**The fire was the only source of light in the room; it cast long, spidery shadows upon the walls. Frank stared at the back of the armchair; the man inside it seemed to be even smaller than his servant, for Frank couldn't even see the back of his head.**

"**You heard everything, Muggle?" said the cold voice.**

"**What's that you're calling me?" said Frank defiantly, for now that he was inside the room, now that the time had come for some sort of action, he felt braver; it had always been so in the war.**

"It looks like he would have been a Gryffindor," Sirius said somberly.

"**I am calling you a Muggle," said the voice coolly. "It means that you are not a wizard."**

"**I don't know what you mean by wizard," said Frank, his voice growing steadier. "All I know is I've heard enough to interest the police tonight, I have. You've done murder and you're planning more! And I'll tell you this too," he added, on a sudden inspiration, "my wife knows I'm up here, and if I don't come back —"**

"It won't work, and if you had a wife he would have just killed her too," Remus said.

"**You have no wife," said the cold voice, very quietly. "Nobody knows you are here. You told nobody that you were coming. Do not lie to Lord Voldemort, Muggle, for he knows… he always knows…"**

"**Is that right?" said Frank roughly. "Lord, is it? Well, I don't think much of your manners, My Lord. Turn 'round and face me like a man, why don't you?"**

"**But I am not a man, Muggle," said the cold voice, barely audible now over the crackling of the flames. "I am much, much more than a man.**

"I don't like the sound of this" muttered Peter darkly.

**However… why not? I will face you… Wormtail, come turn my chair around."**

**The servant gave a whimper.**

"**You heard me, Wormtail."**

**Slowly, with his face screwed up, as though he would rather have done anything than approach his master and the hearth rug where the snake lay, the small man walked forward and began to turn the chair. The snake lifted its ugly triangular head and hissed slightly as the legs of the chair snagged on its rug.**

**And then the chair was facing Frank, and he saw what was sitting in it. His walking stick fell to the floor with a clatter. He opened his mouth and let out a scream.**

"Well I know he's not a looker but still a bit of an overreaction to just seeing Voldemort." Said Sirius a bit confused at the reaction

**He was screaming so loudly that he never heard the words the thing in the chair spoke as it raised a wand. There was a flash of green light, a rushing sound, and Frank Bryce crumpled. He was dead before he hit the floor.**

"How sad." Muttered James

**Two hundred miles away, the boy called Harry Potter woke with a start.**

"What is this just a dream?" asked Sirius.

Remus replied" I don't think so I think harry may have just watched Voldemort plan his death."

James then fainted!

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authors note:will take a while to upload next chapter as i am unsure as to who should join the marauders but please review and suggest who might join


	3. Chapter 3: scar

Disclaimer: I don't own harry potter and i make no profit from this fic.

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BANG!

The entire room was filled with white light for several seconds. When the light cleared the four boys saw a figure with long, thick, dark red hair that fell to her shoulders and startlingly green almond-shaped eyes standing in the middle of the room looking dazed and confused. She looked around at who was there. Peter... Sirius ... Remus... James.

"Lily?" asked James.

"Yes" she replied.

"" shouted James ecstatically running over to hug her.

"Um ... not that this isn't great" Lily said referring to the hug "but what is going on? Alice and I were working in the library when I'm blinded then I open my eyes and I'm here."

"I'll explain" said Remus "but sit down it's a strange story that's unravelling"

Remus explained everything that had gone on from discovering the book, to the mysterious room and strange letters.

"so let me get this straight were about to read about James' future son!" asked Lily.

"Yep that's pretty much it" answered Peter.

"Oh cool, but why am I here." She enquired

"I'm not sure you must be involved in changing the future for the better" Remus replied.

"Well then... can I read next please?"

"sure" agreed the four boys.

**"The Scar,"**

"That doesn't sound good" commented peter.

**Harry lay flat on his back, breathing hard as though he had been running. He had awoken from a vivid dream with his hands pressed over his face. The old scar on his forehead, which was shaped like a bolt of lightning,**

"Awesome" said Sirius "I wonder how he got it"

**Was burning beneath his fingers as though someone had just pressed a white-hot wire to his skin.**

"Ouch, sounds like a curse scar" Remus said.

"What's a curse scar?"Asked the other three Marauders simultaneously

"a curse scar is an unhealable scar that is left by the most powerful of curses" Lily answered

**He sat up, one hand still on his scar, the other hand reaching out in the darkness for his glasses, which were on the bedside table. He put them on and his bedroom came into clearer focus, lit by a faint, misty orange light that was filtering through the curtains from the street lamp outside the window.**

**Harry ran his fingers over the scar again. It was still painful. He turned on the lamp beside him, scrambled out of bed, crossed the room, opened his wardrobe, and peered into the mirror on the inside of the door. A skinny boy of fourteen looked back at him, his bright green eyes**

"woo! He has lily's eyes!" cheered James.

"What it never said that!" argued Lily

"Ah but the only girl I know with bright green eyes is you Evans." Replied James. "Therefore you're my future wife and he is our son"

"But you might meet someone after graduation."Lily added.

"I bet you a galleon he's ours" challenged James.

"Ok but when he's not mine be prepared to pay up."

**Puzzled under his untidy black hair. **

"yay my hair. He's got my hair." James said excitedly.

**He examined the lightning-bolt scar of his reflection more closely. It looked normal, but it was still stinging.**

**Harry tried to recall what he had been dreaming about before he had awoken. It had seemed so real… There had been two people he knew and one he didn't… He concentrated hard, frowning, trying to remember… The dim picture of a darkened room came to him… There had been a snake on a hearth rug… a small man called Peter, nicknamed Wormtail… and a cold, high voice… the voice of Lord Voldemort. Harry felt as though an ice cube had slipped down into his stomach at the very thought…**

**He closed his eyes tightly and tried to remember what Voldemort had looked like, but it was impossible… All Harry knew was that at the moment when Voldemort's chair had swung around, and he, Harry, had seen what was sitting in it, he had felt a spasm of horror, which had awoken him… or had that been the pain in his scar?**

"Again someone has been extremely terrified by seeing him" said Sirius "I mean there are plenty of people who have seen him and not been terrified just by his appearance. I think something has happened to him. To change him somehow."

**And who had the old man been? For there had definitely been an old man; Harry had watched him fall to the ground. It was all becoming confused. Harry put his face into his hands, blocking out his bedroom, trying to hold on to the picture of that dimly lit room, but it was like trying to keep water in his cupped hands; the details were now trickling away as fast as he tried to hold on to them… Voldemort and Wormtail had been talking about someone they had killed, though Harry could not remember the name… and they had been plotting to kill someone else… him!**

"Whoa that is some pretty dark dream for him to have." muttered Peter.

"I wonder why he could see what was happening miles away." Said Lily

**Harry took his face out of his hands, opened his eyes, and stared around his bedroom as though expecting to see something unusual there. As it happened, there was an extraordinary number of unusual things in this room. A large wooden trunk stood open at the foot of his bed, revealing a cauldron, broomstick, black robes, and assorted spell books.**

**Rolls of parchment littered that part of his desk that was not taken up by the large, empty cage in which his snowy owl, Hedwig, usually perched. On the floor beside his bed a book lay open; Harry had been reading it before he fell asleep last night. The pictures in this book were all moving. Men in bright orange robes were zooming in and out of sight on broomsticks, throwing a red ball to one another.**

"HE'S A CANNONS FAN!" cheered Sirius while James grumbled about the harpies.

**Harry walked over to the book, picked it up, and watched on of the wizards score a spectacular goal by putting the ball through a fifty-foot-high hoop. Then he snapped the book shut. Even Quidditch — in Harry's opinion, the best sport in the world —**

"That's because it is" said both James and Sirius simultaniously

**couldn't distract him at the moment. He placed Flying with the Cannons on his bedside table, crossed to the window, and drew back the curtains to survey the street below.**

**Privet Drive**

"Wait, why is he there? Why not godric's hollow or potter mansion?"

Lily sighed opening her purse and finding a galleon.

"Here" she said slightly dreamily handing it to James. "That's where my sister lives. He must be mine if he lives there."

"YEEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSSs!"

**Looked exactly as a respectable suburban street would be expected to look in the early hours of Saturday morning. All the curtains were closed. As far as Harry could see through the darkness, there wasn't a living creature in sight, not even a cat.**

"who's he looking for?"Asked Peter.

"Probably checking for death eaters" said Sirius.

**And yet… and yet… Harry went restlessly back to the bed and sat down on it, running a finger over his scar again. It wasn't the pain that bothered him; Harry was no stranger to pain and injury.**

"What why?" asked James worriedly.

**He had lost all the bones from his right arm once and had them painfully re-grown in a night. **

"Ouch that skele-grow stuff does hurt." Yelped Sirius remembering a Quidditch accident.

**The same arm had been pierced by a venomous foot-long fang not long afterward.**

"WHAT?" screamed James and Lily.

**Only last year Harry had fallen fifty feet from an airborne broomstick.**

"Yay a Quidditch player then" exclaimed James both happy and worried

**He was used to bizarre accidents and injuries; they were unavoidable if you attended Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and had a knack for attracting a lot of trouble.**

"He sounds like us prongs old boy." Said Sirius in an overly posh British accent

**No, the thing that was bothering Harry was the last time his scar had hurt him, it had been because Voldemort had been close by…**

"What?" asked Peter.

**But Voldemort couldn't be here, now… The idea of Voldemort lurking in Privet Drive was absurd, impossible…**

**Harry listened closely to the silence around him. Was he half expecting to hear the creak of a stair or the swish of a cloak? And then he jumped slightly as he heard his cousin Dudley give a tremendous grunting snore from the next room.**

**Harry shook himself mentally; he was being stupid. There was no one in the house with him except Uncle Vernon, Aunt Petunia, and Dudley, and they were plainly still asleep, their dreams untroubled and painless.**

**Asleep was the way Harry liked the Dursleys best; it wasn't as though they were ever any help to him awake. Uncle Vernon, Aunt Petunia, and Dudley were Harry's only living relatives.**

Everyone just stared at the book for a second before Lily burst out crying and James went to comfort her.

"how?" James asked. Remus who had just picked up the book, read ahead a bit and just said "Voldemort"

Lily cried louder and James went pale.

After ten minutes Lily had calmed down and asked Remus to start reading.

**They were Muggles who hated and despised magic in any form, which meant that Harry was about as welcome in their house as dry rot.**

"Why is he with them and not you or Sirius?" asked James.

**They had explained away Harry's long absences at Hogwarts over the last three years by telling everyone that he went to St. Brutus's Secure Center for Incurably Criminal Boys. **

"They what" shrieked Lily angrily while James just sat a disgusted look on his obviously angry face.

**They knew perfectly well that, as an underage wizard, Harry wasn't allowed to use magic outside Hogwarts, but they were still apt to blame him for anything that went wrong about the house. Harry had never been able to confide in them or tell them anything about his life in the wizarding world.**

**The very idea of going to them when they awoke, and telling them about his scar hurting him, and about his worries about Voldemort, was laughable.**

"Poor boy I know how he feels it's the same for me." Grumbled Sirius angrily

**And yet it was because of Voldemort that Harry had come to live with the Dursleys in the first place. If it hadn't been for Voldemort, Harry would not have had the lightning scar on his forehead. If it hadn't been for Voldemort, Harry would still have had parents…**

Lily started crying again mentally preparing herself for what was coming.

**Harry had been a year old the night that Voldemort — the most powerful Dark wizard for a century, a wizard who had been gaining power steadily for eleven years — arrived at his house and killed his father and mother. **

James and Lily turned very pale but asked Remus to continue.

**Voldemort had then turned his wand on Harry; he had performed the curse that had disposed of many full-grown witches and wizards in his steady rise to power — and, incredibly, it had not worked.**

"WHAT?" everyone shouted.

**Instead of killing the small boy, the curse had rebounded upon Voldemort. Harry had survived with nothing but a lightning-shaped cut on his forehead, and Voldemort had been reduced to something barely alive. **

James blew his nose before proudly saying "my son... beat the most powerful dark wizard of all time" him and Sirius then both jumped up and joined each other in a little celebratory dance before allowing Remus to continue.

**His powers gone, his life almost extinguished, Voldemort had fled; the terror in which the secret community of witches and wizards had lived for so long had lifted, Voldemort's followers had disbanded, and Harry Potter had become famous.**

**It had been enough of a shock for Harry to discover, on his eleventh birthday, that he was a wizard; it had been even more disconcerting to find out that everyone in the hidden wizarding world knew his name. Harry had arrived at Hogwarts to find that heads turned and whispers followed him wherever he went. But he was used to it now:**

**At the end of this summer, he would be starting his fourth year at Hogwarts, and Harry was already counting the days until he would be back at the castle again.**

**But there was still a fortnight to go before he went back to school. He looked hopelessly around his room again, and his eye paused on the birthday cards his two best friends had sent him at the end of July. What would they say if Harry wrote to them and told them about his scar hurting?**

**At once, Hermione Granger's voice seemed to fill his head, shrill and panicky.**

"**Your scar hurt? Harry, that's really serious… Write to Professor Dumbledore! And I'll go and check Common Magical Ailments and Afflictions… Maybe there's something in there about curse scars…"**

"Hmm sounds like a certain wolf we know doesn't it prongs." Said Sirius in the posh accent again

James replied in the same tone "yes he has got his very own moony

**Yes that would be Hermione's advice: Go straight to the headmaster of Hogwarts, and in the meantime, consult a book. Harry stared out of the window at the inky blue-black sky. He doubted very much whether a book could help him now. As far as he knew, he was the only living person to have survived a curse like Voldemort's; it was highly unlikely, therefore, that he would find his symptoms listed in Common Magical Ailments and Afflictions.**

"She sounds sensible." Said both Lily and Remus.

**As for informing the headmaster, Harry had no idea where Dumbledore went during the summer holidays. He amused himself for a moment, picturing Dumbledore, with his long silver beard, full length wizard's robes, and pointed hat, stretched out on a beach somewhere, rubbing suntan lotion onto his long crooked nose.**

At this image everyone in the room burst out laughing and Sirius even fell of his chair he was laughing so hard.

**Wherever Dumbledore was, though, Harry was sure that Hedwig would be able to find him; Harry's owl had never yet failed to deliver a letter to anyone, even without an address. But what would he write?**

**Dear Professor Dumbledore,**

**Sorry to bother you, but my scar hurt this morning.**

**Yours sincerely,**

**Harry Potter.**

**Even inside his head the words sounded stupid.**

**And so he tried to imagine his other best friend, Ron Weasley's, reaction, and in a moment, Ron's red hair and long-nosed, freckled face seemed to swim before Harry, wearing a bemused expression.**

"Hmm that must be that prefect Arthur's son." Thought James outloud.

"**Your scar hurt? But… but You-Know-Who can't be near you now, can he? I mean… you'd know, wouldn't you? He'd be trying to do you in again, wouldn't he? I dunno, Harry, maybe curse scars always twinge a bit… I'll ask Dad…"**

**Mr. Weasley was a fully qualified wizard who worked in the Misuse of Muggle Artefacts Office at the Ministry of Magic, but he didn't have any particular expertise in the matter of curses, as far as Harry knew. In any case, Harry didn't like the idea of the whole Weasley family knowing that he, Harry, was getting jumpy about a few moments' pain. Mrs. Weasley would fuss worse than Hermione,**

**and Fred and George, Ron's sixteen- year-old twin brothers, might think Harry was losing his nerve. The Weasleys were Harry's favorite family in the world;**

"That's good at least he has people who care about him. That reminds me i am going to have to have a word with 'tuney' when I get home." Lily laughed.

**h****e was hoping that they might invite him to stay any time now (Ron had mentioned something about the Quidditch World Cup),**

"Wow it's in England again! I wonder who's playing."

Remus resumed reading before James could get any further.

**And he somehow didn't want his visit punctuated with anxious inquiries about his scar.**

"yes that would be annoying" agreed Sirius " but why doesn't he owl me or moony."

**Harry kneaded his forehead with his knuckles. What he really wanted (and it felt almost shameful to admit it to himself) was someone like - someone like a parent:**

**an adult wizard whose advice he could ask without feeling stupid, someone who cared about him, who had had experience with Dark Magic…**

**And then the solution came to him. It was so simple, and so obvious, that he couldn't believe it had taken so long - Sirius.**

" I'm in it." Yelled Sirius dancing around the room in happiness.

**Harry leapt up from the bed, hurried across the room, and sat down at his desk; he pulled a piece of parchment toward him, loaded his eagle-feather quill with ink, wrote Dear Sirius, then paused, wondering how best to phrase his problem, still marveling at the fact that he hadn't thought of Sirius straight away. But then, perhaps it wasn't so surprising - after all, he had only found out that Sirius was his godfather two months ago. **

"What why? Wait if I'm his godfather shouldn't he be in my care." Sirius asked confusedly.

"yes, you should" said Remus.

**There was a simple reason for Sirius's complete absence from Harry's life until then - Sirius had been in Azkaban,**

"WHAT?" Everyone screamed. Everyone except Sirius that is he just sat there as all colour drained from his face.

**the terrifying wizard jail guarded by creatures called Dementors, sightless, soul-sucking fiends who had come to search for Sirius at Hogwarts when he had escaped. Yet Sirius had been innocent - the murders for which he had been convicted had been committed by Wormtail,**

Everyone glared at Peter, who was on his knees begging for Sirius' forgiveness swearing that he wouldn't ever do that to him.

**Voldemort's supporter, whom nearly everybody now believed dead. Harry, Ron, and Hermione knew otherwise, however; they had come face-to-face with Wormtail only the previous year, though only Professor Dumbledore had believed their story.**

**For one glorious hour, Harry had believed that he was leaving the Dursleys at last, because Sirius had offered him a home once his name had been cleared.**

**But the chance had been snatched away from him - Wormtail had escaped before they could take him to the Ministry of Magic, and Sirius had had to flee for his life.**

Once again all eyes were glaring at Peter angrily, making him flinch.

**Harry had helped him escape on the back of a hippogriff called Buckbeak, and since then, Sirius had been on the run. **

"Wow that's the best escape ever." Laughed Sirius apparently over the thought of Azkaban.

**The home Harry might have had if Wormtail had not escaped had been haunting him all summer. It had been doubly hard to return to the Dursleys knowing that he had so nearly escaped them forever.**

"sorry harry" Peter whispered sadly

**Nevertheless, Sirius had been of some help to Harry, even if he couldn't be with him. It was due to Sirius that Harry now had all his school things in his bedroom with him. The Dursleys had never allowed this before; their general wish of keeping Harry as miserable as possible, coupled with their fear of his powers, had led them to lock his school trunk in the cupboard under the stairs every summer prior to this. But their attitude had changed since they had found out that Harry had a dangerous murderer for a godfather - for Harry had conveniently forgotten to tell them that Sirius was innocent.**

"brilliant" laughed everyone in the room.

**Harry had received two letters from Sirius since he had been back at Privet Drive. Both had been delivered, not by owls (as was usual with wizards), but by large, brightly coloured tropical birds.**

**Hedwig had not approved of these flashy intruders; she had been most reluctant to allow them to drink from her water tray before flying off again. Harry, on the other hand, had liked them; they put him in mind of palm trees and white sand, and he hoped that, wherever Sirius was (Sirius never said, in case the letters were intercepted), he was enjoying himself.**

**Somehow, Harry found it hard to imaging Dementors surviving for long in bright sunlight, perhaps that was why Sirius had gone South. Sirius's letters, which were now hidden beneath the highly useful loose floorboards under Harry's bed, sounded cheerful, and in both of them he had reminded Harry to call on him if ever Harry needed to. Well, he needed to right now, all right…**

**Harry's lamp seemed to grow dimmer as the cold gray light that precedes sunrise slowly crept into the room. Finally, when the sun had risen, when his bedroom walls had turned gold, and when sounds of movement could be heard from Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia's room, Harry cleared his desk of crumpled pieces of parchment and reread his finished letter.**

**Dear Sirius,**

**Thanks for your last letter. That bird was enormous; it could hardly get through my window. Things are the same as usual here. Dudley's diet isn't going too well.**

**My aunt found him smuggling doughnuts into his room yesterday. They told him they'd have to cut his pocket money if he keeps doing it, so he got really angry and chucked his PlayStation out of the window. That's a sort of computer thing you can play games on. Bit stupid really, now he hasn't even got Mega-Mutilation Part Three to take his mind off things.**

"Brat" growled James.

**I'm okay, mainly because the Dursleys are terrified you might turn up and turn them all into bats if I ask you to.**

"I say it again, simply brilliant." Laughed Sirius.

**A weird thing happened this morning, though. My scar hurt again. Last time that happened it was because Voldemort was at Hogwarts. But I don't reckon he can be anywhere near me now, can he? Do you know if curse scars sometimes hurt years afterward?**

**I'll send this with Hedwig when she gets back; she's off hunting at the moment. Say hello to Buckbeak for me.**

**Harry**

**Yes, thought Harry, that looked all right. There was no point putting in the dream; he didn't want it to look as though he was too worried.**

"idiot" said Sirius jokingly

**He folded up the parchment and laid it aside on his desk, ready for when Hedwig returned. Then he got to his feet, stretched, and opened his wardrobe once more. Without glancing at his reflection he started to get dressed before going down to breakfast.**

"Well that wasn't a very happy chapter was it?" said Remus

"So far it hasn't been a very happy book" added Peter darkly.

"I'm hungry" grumbled Sirius "can we get some food before the next chapter."

"nothing new there" commented Remus" you're always hungry."

At his words a house elf popped into the room looking confused.

After the initial confusion the elf bought them some dinner up to them, which they all enjoyed while discussing their thoughts on the book.

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**Authors Note: **wow that took ages to write

I hope your glad with my choice of lily.

it was gong to be Snape but without lily its hard for him to be integrated into a marauder story straight away

he will join them just not yet.

PS thanks for the reviews im glad you like this.

ALSO updates wont be this frequent when I go back to school next week


	4. Chapter 4: the invite

**Disclaimer: still not mine still not making money from it. its still jk's**

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Chapter 4: The Invitation

After settling down in their armchairs after their lunch Sirius shouted "MY TURN!" before grabbing the book, from where it rest on Remus' chair, and started reading before anyone could argue.

**"The Invitation,"**Sirius read. "What does that mean?"

"It's probably Ron's invitation asking Harry to stay over," James said excitedly.

**By the time Harry arrived in the kitchen, the three Dursleys were already seated around the table. None of them looked up as he entered or sat down. Uncle Vernon's large red face was hidden behind the morning's Daily Mail, and Aunt Petunia was cutting a grapefruit into quarters, her lips pursed over her horse-like teeth.**

"Gits," exclaimed Peter

**Dudley looked furious and sulky, and somehow seemed to be taking up even more space than usual. This was saying something, as he always took up an entire side of the square table by himself. When Aunt Petunia put a quarter of unsweetened grapefruit onto Dudley's plate with a tremulous "There you are, Diddy darling," Dudley glowered at her. His life had taken a most unpleasant turn since he had come home for the summer with his end-of-year report.**

"Ha bet that made them see what Dudley is, a bully." Laughed James.

Remus replied "I doubt that, in the Dursleys eyes Dudley can do no wrong."

**Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia had managed to find excuses for his bad marks as usual: Aunt Petunia always insisted that Dudley was a very gifted boy whose teachers didn't understand him,**

"Sure," Lily said sarcastically.

**while Uncle Vernon maintained that "he didn't want some swotty little Nancy boy for a son anyway." They also skated over the accusations of bullying in the report - "He's a boisterous little boy, but he wouldn't hurt a fly!"**

"WHAT? There letting him get away with hurting people." Shouted James angrily.

**Aunt Petunia had said tearfully. However, at the bottom of the report there were a few well-chosen comments from the school nurse that not even Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia could explain away. No matter how much Aunt Petunia wailed that Dudley was big-boned, and that his poundage was really puppy fat, and that he was a growing boy who needed plenty of food, the fact remained that the school outfitters didn't stock knickerbockers big enough for him anymore.**

"Wow He must be seriously overweight maybe he should go see a doctor if it's that bad" exclaimed Lily, while all the boys were rolling on the floor with laughter.

**The school nurse had seen what Aunt Petunia's eyes - so sharp when it came to spotting fingerprints on her gleaming walls, and in observing the comings and goings of the neighbours - simply refused to see: that far from needing extra nourishment, Dudley had reached roughly the size and weight of a young killer whale.**

Sirius was having silent fits of laughter at this and had to wait ten whole minutes before he was calm enough to continue reading.

**So - after many tantrums, after arguments that shook Harry's bedroom floor, and many tears from Aunt Petunia - the new regime had begun. The diet sheet that had been sent by the Smeltings school nurse had been taped to the fridge, which had been emptied of all Dudley's favorite things - fizzy drinks and cakes, chocolate bars and burgers and filled instead with fruit and vegetables and the sorts of things that Uncle Vernon called "rabbit food."**

**To make Dudley feel better about it all, Aunt Petunia had insisted that the whole family follow the diet too. She now passed a grapefruit quarter to Harry. He noticed that it was a lot smaller than Dudley's. Aunt Petunia seemed to feel that the best way to keep up Dudley's morale was to make sure that he did, at least, get more to eat than Harry.**

"Petunia!" Lily growled angrily "you had better not be starving him just to make your pig of a son feel better."

**But Aunt Petunia didn't know what was hidden under the loose floorboard upstairs. She had no idea that Harry was not following the diet at all.**

"Yay harry wont starve at least" said Lily while the Marauders cheered at harry fooling the muggles.

**The moment he had got wind of the fact that he was expected to survive the summer on carrot sticks, Harry had sent Hedwig to his friends with pleas for help, and they had risen to the occasion magnificently. Hedwig had returned from Hermione's house with a large box stuffed full of sugar-free snacks.**

"what why sugar free?" asked the three Marauders.

**(Hermione's parents were dentists.) Hagrid, the Hogwarts gamekeeper, had obliged with a sack full of his own homemade rock cakes. (Harry hadn't touched these; he had had too much experience of Hagrid's cooking.)**

"good idea to leave them harry" joked Sirius

**Mrs. Weasley, however, had sent the family owl, Errol, with an enormous fruitcake and assorted meat pies.**

Lily smiled at this.

"At least he has got someone who cares for him." She whispered remembering her and James' fate.

**Poor Errol, who was elderly and feeble, had needed a full five days to recover from the journey. **

"Poor bird, wonder why they don't replace it." Remus asked.

"as far as I know Arthur's family aren't all that well off and owls are pretty expensive." Answered James.

**And then on Harry's birthday (which the Dursleys had completely ignored) **

"What how dare they ignore him?" screeched Lily trilly.

James glared darkly at the book muttering darkly under his breath what he would like to do to the Dursleys.

**He had received four superb birthday cakes, one each from Ron, Hermione, Hagrid, and Sirius. Harry still had two of them left, and so, looking forward to a real breakfast when he got back upstairs, he ate his grapefruit without complaint.**

**Uncle Vernon laid aside his paper with a deep sniff of disapproval and looked down at his own grapefruit quarter.**

"**Is this it?" he said grumpily to Aunt Petunia.**

"Pig."

**Aunt Petunia gave him a severe look, and then nodded pointedly at Dudley, who had already finished his own grapefruit quarter and was eyeing Harry's with a very sour look in his piggy little eyes.**

"Don't you dare steal my sons food you fat bastard" roared James jumping out his chair.

**Uncle Vernon gave a great sigh, which ruffled his large, bushy moustache, and picked up his spoon.**

**The doorbell rang. Uncle Vernon heaved himself out of his chair and set off down the hall. Quick as a flash, while his mother was occupied with the kettle, Dudley stole the rest of Uncle Vernon's grapefruit.**

**Harry heard talking at the door, and someone laughing, and Uncle Vernon answering curtly.**

"Wonder what this is about?" pondered Peter.

**Then the front door closed, and the sound of ripping paper came from the hall.**

**Aunt Petunia set the teapot down on the table and looked curiously around to see where Uncle Vernon had got to. She didn't have to wait long to find out; after about a minute, he was back. He looked livid.**

"**You," he barked at Harry. "In the living room. Now."**

"Uh oh this can't be good." Muttered Remus.

**Bewildered, wondering what on earth he was supposed to have done this time; Harry got up and followed Uncle Vernon out of the kitchen and into the next room. Uncle Vernon closed the door sharply behind both of them.**

"**So," he said, marching over to the fireplace and turning to face Harry as though he were about to pronounce him under arrest. "So."**

"So what idiot?" asked James.

**Harry would have dearly loved to have said, "So what?"**

Everyone laughed and Sirius joked "he is definitely the son of a marauder"

**But he didn't feel that Uncle Vernon's temper should be tested this early in the morning, **

"Probably for the best" added Lily.

**Especially when it was already under severe strain from lack of food. He therefore settled for looking politely puzzled.**

"**This just arrived," said Uncle Vernon. He brandished a piece of purple writing paper at Harry. "A letter. About you."**

**Harry's confusion increased. Who would be writing to Uncle Vernon about him? Who did he know who sent letters by the postman?**

**Uncle Vernon glared at Harry, then looked down at the letter and began to read aloud:**

**Dear Mr. and Mrs. Dursley,**

**We have never been introduced, but I am sure you have heard a great deal from Harry about my son Ron.**

"Yay, Prongslet will be leaving them." Cheered Sirius.

Everyone looked at him questioningly.

"Prongslet." Remus asked

"what he's prongs' son so his nickname is Prongslet."

The Marauders laughed at Sirius' logical answer, while Lily rolled her eyes.

**As Harry might have told you, the final of the Quidditch World Cup takes place this Monday night, and my husband, Arthur, has just managed to get prime tickets through his connections at the Department of Magical Games and Sports. I do hope you will allow us to take Harry to the match, as this really is a once-in-a lifetime opportunity;**

"YES HARRY IS GOING TO THE CUP" screamed James happily.

**Britain hasn't hosted the cup for thirty years, and tickets are extremely hard to come by. We would of course be glad to have Harry stay for the remainder of the summer holidays, and to see him safely onto the train back to school.**

**It would be best for Harry to send us your answer as quickly as possible in the normal way, because the Muggle postman has never delivered to our house, and I am not sure he even knows where it is.**

**Hoping to see Harry soon,**

**Yours sincerely,**

**Molly Weasley**

"Hmm molly, could that be molly prewett the girl Arthurs with now?" asked Lily.

"Probably," answered James. "They've not been going out long but you can already tell they're in love."

**P.S. I do hope we've put enough stamps on.**

**Uncle Vernon finished reading, put his hand back into his breast pocket, and drew out something else.**

"**Look at this," he growled.**

**He held up the envelope in which Mrs. Weasley's letter had come, and Harry had to fight down a laugh. Every bit of it was covered in stamps except for a square inch on the front, into which Mrs. Weasley had squeezed the Dursleys' address in minute writing.**

Lily and Remus burst out laughing.

"What's so funny" asked James and Sirius neither understanding what was wrong with the letter.

Lily explained "Muggle post only requires one or two stamps to get the post anywhere."

James and Sirius and Peter all joined their friends in laughing at this.

"**She did put enough stamps on, then," said Harry, trying to sound as though Mrs. Weasley's was a mistake anyone could make.**

**His uncle's eyes flashed.**

"**The postman noticed," he said through gritted teeth. "Very interested to know where this letter came from, he was. That's why he rang the doorbell. Seemed to think it was funny."**

**Harry didn't say anything. Other people might not understand why Uncle Vernon was making a fuss about too many stamps, but Harry had lived with the Dursleys too long not to know how touchy they were about anything even slightly out of the ordinary. Their worst fear was that someone would find out that they were connected (however distantly) with people like Mrs. Weasley.**

"Well I'm sure they don't like being connected to you either" said Sirius jokingly

**Uncle Vernon was still glaring at Harry, who tried to keep his expression neutral. If he didn't do or say anything stupid, he might just be in for the treat of a lifetime.**

**He waited for Uncle Vernon to say something, but he merely continued to glare.**

**Harry decided to break the silence.**

"**So - can I go then?" he asked.**

"The answer had better be yes" growled James.

"Don't worry James if they don't let him ill turn them into bats." Said Sirius, joyfully imagining the scene.

Laughing, Sirius carried on reading.

**A slight spasm crossed Uncle Vernon's large purple face. The moustache bristled. Harry thought he knew what was going on behind the moustache: a furious battle as two of Uncle Vernon's most fundamental instincts came into conflict. Allowing Harry to go would make Harry happy, something Uncle Vernon had struggled against for thirteen years.**

"Bastard!" barked Sirius.

**On the other hand, allowing Harry to disappear to the Weasleys' for the rest of the summer would get rid of him two weeks earlier than anyone could have hoped, and Uncle Vernon hated having Harry in the house. To give himself thinking time, it seemed, he looked down at Mrs. Weasley's letter again.**

"**Who is this woman?" he said, staring at the signature with distaste.**

"**You've seen her," said Harry. "She's my friend Ron's mother, she was meeting him off the Hog - off the school train at the end of last term."**

**He had almost said "Hogwarts Express," and that was a sure way to get his uncle's temper up. Nobody ever mentioned the name of Harry's school aloud in the Dursley household.**

**Uncle Vernon screwed up his enormous face as though trying to remember something very unpleasant.**

"**Dumpy sort of woman?" he growled finally.**

"That is rich coming from whale boy's father" Peter said jokingly

**"Load of children with red hair?"**

**Harry frowned. He thought it was a bit rich of Uncle Vernon to call anyone "dumpy," when his own son, Dudley, had finally achieved what he'd been threatening to do since the age of three, and become wider than he was tall. Uncle Vernon was perusing the letter again.**

"**Quidditch," he muttered under his breath. "Quidditch - what is this rubbish?"**

"Quidditch isn't rubbish," shouted James "it's the best game in the world."

**Harry felt a second stab of annoyance.**

"**It's a sport," he said shortly. "Played on broom- "**

"**All right, all right!" said Uncle Vernon loudly. Harry saw, with some satisfaction, that his uncle looked vaguely panicky. Apparently his nerves couldn't stand the sound of the word "broomsticks" in his living room. He took refuge in perusing the letter again. Harry saw his lips form the words "send us your answer… in the normal way." He scowled.**

"**What does she mean, 'the normal way'?" he spat.**

"Owls obviously" spat Remus glaring at the book

"**Normal for us," said Harry, and before his uncle could stop him, he added, "You know, owl post. That's what's normal for wizards."**

**Uncle Vernon looked as outraged as if Harry had just uttered a disgusting swearword. Shaking with anger, he shot a nervous look through the window, as though expecting to see some of the neighbours with their ears pressed against the glass.**

"**How many times do I have to tell you not to mention that unnaturalness under my roof?" he hissed, his face now a rich plum colour. **

"Over reaction much?" said Remus "muggles say the word wizard every day."

**"You stand there, in the clothes Petunia and I have put on your ungrateful back -"**

"Why the hell should he be grateful to you, you treat him like crap," Lily said angrily.

"**Only after Dudley finished with them," said Harry coldly, and indeed, he was dressed in a sweatshirt so large for him that he had had to roll back the sleeves five times so as to be able to use his hands, and which fell past the knees of his extremely baggy jeans.**

"**I will not be spoken to like that!" said Uncle Vernon, trembling with rage.**

**But Harry wasn't going to stand for this. Gone were the days when he had been forced to take every single one of the Dursleys' stupid rules. He wasn't following Dudley's diet, and he wasn't going to let Uncle Vernon stop him from going to the Quidditch World Cup, not if he could help it. Harry took a deep, steadying breath and then said, "Okay, I can't see the World Cup. Can I go now, then? Only I've got a letter to Sirius I want to finish. You know - my godfather."**

"Yes! Thank You Padfoot," James beamed.

"Anytime Prongs," looking quite pleased with himself.

**He had done it, he had said the magic words. Now he watched the purple recede blotchily from Uncle Vernon's face, making it look like badly mixed black currant ice cream.**

"**You're - you're writing to him, are you?" said Uncle Vernon, in a would-be calm voice - but Harry had seen the pupils of his tiny eyes contract with sudden fear.**

"**Well - yeah," said Harry, casually. "It's been a while since he heard from me, and, you know, if he doesn't he might start thinking something's wrong."**

"I wish I could see the gits face when harry said that" sighed Sirius

**He stopped there to enjoy the effect of these words. He could almost see the cogs working under Uncle Vernon's thick, dark, neatly parted hair. If he tried to stop Harry writing to Sirius, Sirius would think Harry was being mistreated. If he told Harry he couldn't go to the Quidditch World Cup, Harry would write and tell Sirius, who would know Harry was being mistreated. There was only one thing for Uncle Vernon to do. Harry could see the conclusion forming in his uncle's mind as though the great mustached face were transparent. Harry tried not to smile, to keep his own face as blank as possible. And then –**

"**Well, all right then. You can go to this ruddy… this stupid… this World Cup thing. **

"YES, he's going" cheered James merrily.

**You write and tell these - these Weasleys they're to pick you up, mind. I haven't got time to go dropping you off all over the country. And you can spend the rest of the summer there. And you can tell your - your godfather… tell him… tell him you're going."**

"**Okay then," said Harry brightly.**

**He turned and walked toward the living room door, fighting the urge to jump into the air and whoop. He was going… he was going to the Weasleys', he was going to watch the Quidditch World Cup! Outside in the hall he nearly ran into Dudley, who had been lurking behind the door, clearly hoping to overhear Harry being told off. He looked shocked to see the broad grin on Harry's face.**

"**That was an excellent breakfast, wasn't it?" said Harry. "I feel really full, don't you?"**

The Marauders all laughed at this knowing how it would affect Dudley.

**Laughing at the astonished look on Dudley's face, Harry took the stairs three at a time, and hurled himself back into his bedroom.**

**The first thing he saw was that Hedwig was back. She was sitting in her cage, staring at Harry with her enormous amber eyes, and clicking her beak in the way that meant she was annoyed about something. Exactly what was annoying her became apparent almost at once.**

"**OUCH!" said Harry as what appeared to be a small, gray, feathery tennis ball collided with the side of his head.**

"Wtf?" Asked Sirius

**Harry massaged the spot furiously, looking up to see what had hit him, and saw a minute owl, small enough to fit into the palm of his hand,**

"Aww" cooed lily

**Whizzing excitedly around the room like a loose firework. Harry then realized that the owl had dropped a letter at his feet. Harry bent down, recognized Ron's handwriting, then tore open the envelope. Inside was a hastily scribbled note.**

**Harry - DAD GOT THE TICKETS - Ireland versus Bulgaria, Monday night. Mum's writing to the Muggles to ask you to stay. They might already have the letter, I don't know how fast Muggle post is. Thought I'd send this with Pig anyway.**

"Weird name for an owl" muttered Sirius.

**Harry stared at the word "Pig," then looked up at the tiny owl now zooming around the light fixture on the ceiling. He had never seen anything that looked less like a pig.**

"Yay Prongslet agrees with me" laughed Sirius while the others just rolled their eyes at him.

**Maybe he couldn't read Ron's writing. He went back to the letter:**

**We're coming for you whether the Muggles like it or not, you can't miss the World Cup, only Mum and Dad reckon it's better if we pretend to ask their permission first. If they say yes, send Pig back with your answer pronto, and we'll come and get you at five o'clock on Sunday. If they say no, send Pig back pronto and we'll come and get you at five o'clock on Sunday anyway.**

"I like him" commented Sirius.

**Hermione's arriving this afternoon. Percy's started work - the Department of International Magical Cooperation. Don't mention anything about Abroad while you're here unless you want the pants bored off you.**

**See you soon –**

**Ron**

"**Calm down!" Harry said as the small owl flew low over his head, twittering madly with what Harry could only assume was pride at having delivered the letter to the right person. "Come here, I need you to take my answer back!"**

**The owl fluttered down on top of Hedwig's cage. Hedwig looked coldly up at it, as though daring it to try and come any closer.**

"Wow, a certain bird needs to learn to share." Joked Sirius happily.

**Harry seized his eagle-feather quill once more, grabbed a fresh piece of parchment, and wrote:**

**Ron, it's all okay, the Muggles say I can come. See you five o'clock tomorrow. Can't wait.**

**Harry**

**He folded this note up very small, and with immense difficulty, tied it to the tiny owl's leg as it hopped on the spot with excitement. The moment the note was secure, the owl was off again; it zoomed out of the window and out of sight.**

**Harry turned to Hedwig.**

"**Feeling up to a long journey?" he asked her.**

**Hedwig hooted in a dignified sort of a way.**

"**Can you take this to Sirius for me?" he said, picking up his letter. "Hang on… I just want to finish it."**

**He unfolded the parchment and hastily added a postscript.**

**If you want to contact me, I'll be at my friend Ron Weasley's for the rest of the summer. His dad's got us tickets for the Quidditch World Cup!**

**The letter finished, he tied it to Hedwig's leg; she kept unusually still, as though determined to show him how a real post owl should behave.**

"She sounds like an owl version of McGonagall." Laughed Peter.

"Yeah" agreed James "and pig is like Sirius."

They all laughed at this except Sirius who grumbled about being compared to an over excited fluff ball.

"**I'll be at Ron's when you get back, all right?" Harry told her.**

**She nipped his finger affectionately, then, with a soft swooshing noise, spread her enormous wings and soared out of the open window. Harry watched her out of sight, then crawled under his bed, wrenched up the loose floorboard, and pulled out a large chunk of birthday cake. He sat there on the floor eating it, savouring the happiness that was flooding through him. He had cake, and Dudley had nothing but grapefruit;**

"Ha serves the pig right" Cheered Sirius.

**It was a bright summer's day, he would be leaving Privet Drive tomorrow, his scar felt perfectly normal again, and he was going to watch the Quidditch World Cup. It was hard, just now, to feel worried about anything - even Lord Voldemort.**

Peter trembled at the name.

" well that's the end of the chapter" said Sirius. "Who wants to read next?"

"Me, I do, it's my turn to read" blurted James before anyone could say anything.

* * *

**Authors note: **hope your enjoying and thanks for your reviews I enjoyed reading them.

also another character will be added in the next four chapters so please suggest who you want and I will consider each of your choices before deciding.


	5. Chapter 5: back to the burrow

**disclaimer: I don't own harry potter and make no profit from this fic.**

* * *

**"Back to the Burrow,"**

**By twelve o'clock the next day, Harry's school trunk was packed with his school things and all his most prized possessions - the Invisibility Cloak he had inherited from his father, the broomstick he had gotten from Sirius, the enchanted map of Hogwarts he had been given by Fred and George Weasley last year.**

"Yeah, those are definitely your most important possessions."

**He had emptied his hiding place under the loose floorboard of all food,**

"Why, he should have just let the food riot there, it would have driven his Aunt crazy?" Sirius said.

"She might have figured out about his loose floorboard then," James laughed.

"Or he would have come back after an entire year and have the stink in his room all summer." Lily added.

**Double-checked every nook and cranny of his bedroom for forgotten spell books or quills, and taken down the chart on the wall counting down the days to September the first, on which he liked to cross off the days remaining until his return to Hogwarts.**

**The atmosphere inside number four, Privet Drive was extremely tense.** **The imminent arrival at their house of an assortment of wizards was making the Dursleys uptight and irritable. Uncle Vernon had looked downright alarmed when Harry informed him that the Weasleys would be arriving at five o'clock the very next day.**

"**I hope you told them to dress properly, these people," he snarled at once. "I've seen the sort of stuff your lot wear. They'd better have the decency to put on normal clothes, that's all."**

"What's wrong with what we wear?" queried Peter.

"Muggles don't usually wear robes, especially not in the middle of summer," answered Remus.

"Oh, ok." Mumbled Peter in response.

**Harry felt a slight sense of foreboding. He had rarely seen Mr. or Mrs. Weasley wearing anything that the Dursleys would call "normal." Their children might don Muggle clothing during the holidays, but Mr. and Mrs. Weasley usually wore long robes in varying states of shabbiness. Harry wasn't bothered about what the neighbours would think, but he was anxious about how rude the Dursleys might be to the Weasleys if they turned up looking like their worst idea of wizards.**

"I'm sure they wouldn't care what they said," Lily said.

"You realise you're talking to a book" joked Sirius.

"LANGLOCK!" Lily shouted

Sirius' tongue was suddenly glued to the top of his mouth.

The other Marauders laughed at Sirius' predicament.

"I'll release you at the end of the chapter."Lily laughed.

This sent the Marauders into fits of laughter.

When James eventually calmed down he continued.

**Uncle Vernon had put on his best suit. To some people, this might have looked like a gesture of welcome, but Harry knew it was because Uncle Vernon wanted to look impressive and intimidating.**

"They're not even going to notice he's dressed up... they don't know Muggle clothing after all," Lily added.

"Yeah" James joked "He could be wearing a dress and the Elder Weasleys wouldn't care or even notice."

**Dudley, on the other hand, looked somehow diminished. This was not because the diet was at last taking effect, but due to fright. Dudley had emerged from his last encounter with a fully grown wizard with a curly pig's tail poking out of the seat of his trousers,**

At this the Marauders burst out laughing, including Sirius whose tongue couldn't move so it sounded more like grunting, which made everyone laugh harder.

"serves him right." Commented James.

**And Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon had had to pay for its removal at a private hospital in London. It wasn't altogether surprising, therefore, that Dudley kept running his hand nervously over his backside, and walking sideways from room to room, so as not to present the same target to the enemy.**

**Lunch was an almost silent meal. Dudley didn't even protest at the food (cottage cheese and grated celery). Aunt Petunia wasn't, eating anything at all. Her arms were folded, her lips were pursed, and she seemed to be chewing her tongue, as though biting back the furious diatribe she longed to throw at Harry.**

Lily sighed at the mention of her sister and her hatred for Harry. James crossed the room and comforted her before continuing reading.

"**They'll be driving, of course?" Uncle Vernon barked across the table.**

"**Er," said Harry.**

**He hadn't thought of that. How were the Weasleys going to pick him up?**

"That is a good question," Remus said.

"Arthur will probably just Apparate there," Peter said.

"But what about all of his stuff?" Remus said. "It's more likely that he will floo there... then he can get everything without trouble."

"Well, I'm sure appearing in the fire will definitely cause trouble with the muggles wanting to seem normal." joked James.

**They didn't have a car anymore; the old Ford Anglia they had once owned was currently running wild in the Forbidden Forest at Hogwarts.**

"What?" laughed everyone.

"Brilliant," commented James while more grunting came from Sirius.

**But Mr. Weasley had borrowed a Ministry of Magic car last year; possibly he would do the same today?**

"I doubt that," commented Remus "The ministry probably only agreed to that last year because harry was supposedly in danger from Sirius."

"**I think so," said Harry.**

**Uncle Vernon snorted into his moustache. Normally, Uncle Vernon would have asked what car Mr. Weasley drove; he tended to judge other men by how big and expensive their cars were. But Harry doubted whether Uncle Vernon would have taken to Mr. Weasley even if he drove a Ferrari.**

"Bastard," muttered peter darkly.

"LANGLOCK!" Lily cursed Peter.

"No bad language,"

Peter tried and failed to cast the counter curse silently while James and Remus were laughing their heads off.

**Harry spent most of the afternoon in his bedroom; he couldn't stand watching Aunt Petunia peer out through the net curtains every few seconds, as though there had been a warning about an escaped rhinoceros. Finally, at a quarter to five, Harry went back downstairs and into the living room.**

**Aunt Petunia was compulsively straightening cushions. Uncle Vernon was pretending to read the paper, but his tiny eyes were not moving, and Harry was sure he was really listening with all his might for the sound of an approaching car. Dudley was crammed into an armchair, his porky hands beneath him, clamped firmly around his bottom. Harry couldn't take the tension; he left the room and went and sat on the stairs in the hall, his eyes on his watch and his heart pumping fast from excitement and nerves.**

**But five o'clock came and then went.**

"What? Why would they be late when floo takes a couple of seconds?" asked Remus.

**Uncle Vernon, perspiring slightly in his suit, opened the front door, peered up and down the street, and then withdrew his head quickly.**

"**They're late!" he snarled at Harry.**

"**I know," said Harry. "Maybe - er - the traffic's bad, or something."**

**Ten past five… then a quarter past five… Harry was starting to feel anxious himself now. At half past, he heard Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia conversing in terse mutters in the living room.**

"**No consideration at all."**

"**We might've had an engagement."**

"**Maybe they think they'll get invited to dinner if they're late."**

"Why the bloody hell would they do that, they have the best cook in the world and your company is bad enough to even ruin my appetite!" shouted Remus angrily.

"**Well, they most certainly won't be," said Uncle Vernon, and Harry heard him stand up and start pacing the living room. "They'll take the boy and go, there'll be no hanging around. That's if they're coming at all. Probably mistaken the day. I daresay their kind don't set much store by punctuality. Either that or they drive some tin-pot car that's broken d- AAAAAAARRRRRGH!"**

"Ah, they've arrived." Joked James.

**Harry jumped up. From the other side of the living room door came the sounds of the three Dursleys scrambling, panic-stricken, across the room. Next moment Dudley came flying into the hall, looking terrified.**

"**What happened?" said Harry. "What's the matter?"**

**But Dudley didn't seem able to speak. Hands still clamped over his buttocks, he waddled as fast as he could into the kitchen.**

Everyone was laughing at Dudley's reaction to wizards, and then continued to laugh at Peter and Sirius grunting.

**Harry hurried into the living room. Loud banging's and scrapings were coming from behind the Dursleys' boarded-up fireplace, which had a fake coal fire plugged in front of it.**

"So I guess they tried the floo," Remus said with an amused smile.

"Oh dear, how are they going to get out?" Lily said concerned.

"They'll blast a way out" said James excitedly

"**What is it?" gasped Aunt Petunia, who had backed into the wall and was staring, terrified, toward the fire. "What is it, Vernon?"**

**But they were left in doubt barely a second longer. Voices could be heard from inside the blocked fireplace.**

"**Ouch! Fred, no - go back, go back, there's been some kind of mistake – tell George not to - OUCH! George, no, there's no room, go back quickly and tell Ron-"**

"**Maybe Harry can hear us, Dad - maybe he'll be able to let us out-"**

**There was a loud hammering of fists on the boards behind the electric fire.**

"**Harry? Harry, can you hear us?"**

**The Dursleys rounded on Harry like a pair of angry wolverines.**

James snorted looking at Remus.

"**What is this?" growled Uncle Vernon. "What's going on?"**

"**They - they've tried to get here by Floo powder," said Harry, fighting a mad desire to laugh. "They can travel by fire - only you've blocked the fireplace – hang on -"**

**He approached the fireplace and called through the boards.**

"**Mr. Weasley? Can you hear me?"**

**The hammering stopped. Somebody inside the chimney piece said, "Shh!"**

"**Mr. Weasley, it's Harry… the fireplace has been blocked up. You won't be able to get through there."**

"**Damn!" said Mr. Weasley's voice. "What on earth did they want to block up the fireplace for?"**

"**They've got an electric fire," Harry explained.**

**"Really?" said Mr. Weasley's voice excitedly. "Eclectic, you say? With a plug? Gracious, I must see that… Let's think… ouch, Ron!"**

Everyone was laughing at Arthur enthusiasm, he was so excited he didn't seem to care that he was inside a fireplace.

"Definitely Arthur," Remus said laughing.

**Ron's voice now joined the others'.**

"**What are we doing here? Has something gone wrong?"**

"No, they just wanted to give you a soft landing," said James sarcastically.

"**Oh no, Ron," came Fred's voice, very sarcastically. "No, this is exactly where we wanted to end up."**

"**Yeah, we're having the time of our lives here," said George, whose voice sounded muffled, as though he was squashed against the wall.**

"Hmm, I think I'm going to like those two," commented James while Lily groaned at the idea of future Marauders.

"**Boys, boys…" said Mr. Weasley vaguely."I'm trying to think what to do… Yes… only way… Stand back, Harry."**

**Harry retreated to the sofa. Uncle Vernon, however, moved forward.**

"Idiotic sack of hippogriff shit," Remus said smiling at Vernon's stupidity.

Then a moment later his tongue was stuck as well.

"What did I say about language?" scolded Lily.

James continued quickly scared Lily would curse him if he didn't.

"**Wait a moment!" he bellowed at the fire. "What exactly are you going to -"**

**BANG.**

"YES," James cheered.

**The electric fire shot across the room as the boarded-up fireplace burst outward, expelling Mr. Weasley, Fred, George, and Ron in a cloud of rubble and loose chippings. Aunt Petunia shrieked and fell backward over the coffee table;**

"'ood, e esherves i'" Sirius commented around his tongue.

**Uncle Vernon caught her before she hit the floor, and gaped, speechless, at the Weasleys, all of whom had bright red hair, including Fred and George, who were identical to the last freckle.**

"**That's better," panted Mr. Weasley, brushing dust from his long green robes and straightening his glasses. "Ah - you must be Harry's aunt and uncle!"**

**Tall, thin, and balding, he moved toward Uncle Vernon, his hand outstretched, but Uncle Vernon backed away several paces, dragging Aunt Petunia. Words utterly failed Uncle Vernon. His best suit was covered in white dust, which had settled in his hair and moustache and made him look as though he had just aged thirty years.**

"**Er - yes - sorry about that," said Mr. Weasley, lowering his hand and looking over his shoulder at the blasted fireplace. "It's all my fault. It just didn't occur to me that we wouldn't be able to get out at the other end. I had your fireplace connected to the Floo Network, you see - just for an afternoon, you know, so we could get Harry. Muggle fireplaces aren't supposed to be connected, strictly speaking - but I've got a useful contact at the Floo Regulation Panel and he fixed it for me.**

**I can put it right in a jiffy, though, don't worry. I'll light a fire to send the boys back, and then I can repair your fireplace before I Disapparate."**

**Harry was ready to bet that the Dursleys hadn't understood a single word of this. They were still gaping at Mr. Weasley, thunderstruck. Aunt Petunia staggered upright again and hid behind Uncle Vernon.**

**"Hello, Harry!" said Mr. Weasley brightly. "Got your trunk ready?"**

"**It's upstairs," said Harry, grinning back.**

"**We'll get it," said Fred at once. Winking at Harry, he and George left the room.**

James and Sirius were grinning at that.

"They're up to something," James said happily.

"How do you know?" Lily said not really doubting their word but still curious.

"We know," James said while the other Marauders sat there with identical smirks.

**They knew where Harry's bedroom was, having once rescued him from it in the dead of night. **

"Hmm," muttered Lily wondering whether it meant rescued literally.

**Harry suspected that Fred and George were hoping for a glimpse of Dudley; they had heard a lot about him from Harry.**

"**Well," said Mr. Weasley, swinging his arms slightly, while he tried to find words to break the very nasty silence. "Very - erm - very nice place you've got here." As the usually spotless living room was now covered in dust and bits of brick, this remark didn't go down too well with the Dursleys.**

James laughed at Arthur's remark.

**Uncle Vernon's face purpled once more, and Aunt Petunia started chewing her tongue again. However, they seemed too scared to actually say anything.**

**Mr. Weasley was looking around. He loved everything to do with Muggles. Harry could see him itching to go and examine the television and the video recorder.**

"**They run off eckeltricity, do they?" he said knowledgeably.**

"I don't get why he can't say the words if he loves learning about Muggles things so much," Lily asked "especially as his job is entirely to do with muggles."

"**Ah yes, I can see the plugs. I collect plugs," he added to Uncle Vernon. "And batteries. Got a very large collection of batteries. My wife thinks I'm mad, but there you are."**

"So will the Dursleys," Lily laughed.

**Uncle Vernon clearly thought Mr. Weasley was mad too. He moved ever so slightly to the right, screening Aunt Petunia from view, as though he thought Mr. Weasley might suddenly run at them and attack. Dudley suddenly reappeared in the room. Harry could hear the clunk of his trunk on the stairs, and knew that the sounds had scared Dudley out of the kitchen. Dudley edged along the wall, gazing at Mr. Weasley with terrified eyes, and attempted to conceal himself behind his mother and father. Unfortunately, Uncle Vernon's bulk, while sufficient to hide bony Aunt Petunia, was nowhere near enough to conceal Dudley.**

"**Ah, this is your cousin, is it, Harry?" said Mr. Weasley, taking another brave stab at making conversation.**

"Don't bother, they're not worth knowing." James added darkly.

"**Yep," said Harry, "that's Dudley."**

**He and Ron exchanged glances and then quickly looked away from each other; the temptation to burst out laughing was almost overwhelming. Dudley was still clutching his bottom as though afraid it might fall off. Mr. Weasley, however, seemed genuinely concerned at Dudley's peculiar behaviour. Indeed, from the tone of his voice when he next spoke, Harry was quite sure that Mr. Weasley thought Dudley was quite as mad as the Dursleys thought he was, except that Mr. Weasley felt sympathy rather than fear.**

"He's a good man," James said.

"**Having a good holiday, Dudley?" he said kindly.**

**Dudley whimpered. Harry saw his hands tighten still harder over his massive backside.**

**Fred and George came back into the room carrying Harry's school trunk. They glanced around as they entered and spotted Dudley. Their faces cracked into identical evil grins.**

"No... They're definitely not planning anything." James said sarcastically.

"**Ah, right," said Mr. Weasley. "Better get cracking then."**

**He pushed up the sleeves of his robes and took out his wand. Harry saw the Dursleys draw back against the wall as one.**

"**Incendio!" said Mr. Weasley, pointing his wand at the hole in the wall behind him.**

**Flames rose at once in the fireplace, crackling merrily as though they had been burning for hours. Mr. Weasley took a small drawstring bag from his pocket, untied it, took a pinch of the powder inside, and threw it onto the flames, which turned emerald green and roared higher than ever.**

"**Off you go then, Fred," said Mr. Weasley.**

"**Coming," said Fred. "Oh no - hang on -"**

**A bag of sweets had spilled out of Fred's pocket and the contents were now rolling in every direction - big, fat toffees in brightly colored wrappers.**

The marauders all grinned at this.

James laughed

**Fred scrambled around, cramming them back into his pocket, then gave the Dursleys a cheery wave, stepped forward, and walked right into the fire, saying "the Burrow!" Aunt Petunia gave a little shuddering gasp. There was a whooshing sound, and Fred vanished.**

"**Right then, George," said Mr. Weasley, "you and the trunk."**

**Harry helped George carry the trunk forward into the flames and turn it onto its end so that he could hold it better. Then, with a second whoosh, George had cried "the Burrow!" and vanished too.**

"**Ron, you next," said Mr. Weasley.**

"**See you," said Ron brightly to the Dursleys.**

They all laughed at Ron's obvious attempt at making the Dursleys feel uncomfortable.

**He grinned broadly at Harry, then stepped into the fire, shouted "the Burrow!" and disappeared. Now Harry and Mr. Weasley alone remained.**

"**Well… 'Bye then," Harry said to the Dursleys.**

**They didn't say anything at all. Harry moved toward the fire, but just as he reached the edge of the hearth, Mr. Weasley put out a hand and held him back. He was looking at the Dursleys in amazement.**

"Why?" James asked. "He's already seen what their like."

"He must be wondering why the Dursleys don't even care enough to say goodbye to their nephew," Lily said sadly.

"**Harry said good-bye to you," he said. "Didn't you hear him?"**

"**It doesn't matter," Harry muttered to Mr. Weasley. "Honestly, I don't care."**

Lily looked a little sad at this.

**Mr. Weasley did not remove his hand from Harry's shoulder.**

"**You aren't going to see your nephew till next summer," he said to Uncle Vernon in mild indignation. "Surely you're going to say good-bye?"**

**Uncle Vernon's face worked furiously. The idea of being taught consideration by a man who had just blasted away half his living room wall seemed to be causing him intense suffering. But Mr. Weasley's wand was still in his hand, and Uncle Vernon's tiny eyes darted to it once, before he said, very resentfully, "Good-bye, then."**

"Bastard," James said before realising his mistake.

James tried to get out of the way but Lily was to fast so his tongue was also unable to move.

Lily picked up the book and continued from where James left off.

**"See you," said Harry, putting one foot forward into the green flames, which felt pleasantly like warm breath. At that moment, however, a horrible gagging sound erupted behind him, and Aunt Petunia started to scream. Harry wheeled around. Dudley was no longer standing behind his parents. He was kneeling beside the coffee table, and he was gagging and sputtering on a foot-long, purple, slimy thing that was protruding from his mouth.** **One bewildered second later, Harry realized that the foot-long thing was Dudley's tongue - and that a brightly colored toffee wrapper lay on the floor before him.**

All four Marauders where on the floor making the most unusual noises ever because of the curse effecting their ability to laugh. Lily laughed at them but felt pity for them and released their tongues.

Five seconds and four spells later Lily was hanging upside down in the air with green hair, bucked teeth and face covered in pimples.

"Never prank the Marauders" they laughed at Lily, before they realised she was still armed.

A pranking war followed this lasting for over twenty minutes before the final outcome of Lily turning the Marauders robes into frilly dresses giving them all long blonde hair and faces covered in makeup.

They sat their laughing at each other before agreeing a truce and continuing to read

**Aunt Petunia hurled herself onto the ground beside Dudley, seized the end of his swollen tongue, and attempted to wrench it out of his mouth; unsurprisingly, Dudley yelled and sputtered worse than ever, trying to fight her off. Uncle Vernon was bellowing and waving his arms around, and Mr. Weasley had to shout to make himself heard.**

**"Not to worry, I can sort him out!" he yelled, advancing on Dudley with his wand outstretched, but Aunt Petunia screamed worse than ever and threw herself on top of Dudley, shielding him from Mr. Weasley.**

"What do they think he's going to do, curse him?" Sirius huffed.

"Well... yeah, I image that's exactly what they think he's going to do," Remus said.

"**No, really!" said Mr. Weasley desperately. "It's a simple process it was the toffee - my son Fred - real practical joker - but it's only an Engorgement Charm - at least, I think it is - please, I can correct it -"**

"We definitely need to get some of them." Laughed James

**But far from being reassured, the Dursleys became more panic- stricken; Aunt Petunia was sobbing hysterically, tugging Dudley's tongue as though determined to rip it out; Dudley appeared to be suffocating under the combined pressure of his mother and his tongue; and Uncle Vernon, who had lost control completely, seized a china figure from on top of the sideboard and threw it very hard at Mr. Weasley, who ducked, causing the ornament to shatter in the blasted fireplace.**

Everyone was laughing pretty hard by that time.

"Those two are really good," Sirius said still laughing.

"**Now really!" said Mr. Weasley angrily, brandishing his wand. "I'm trying to help!"**

**Bellowing like a wounded hippo, Uncle Vernon snatched up another ornament.**

"**Harry, go! Just go!" Mr. Weasley shouted, his wand on Uncle Vernon. "I'll sort this out!"**

**Harry didn't want to miss the fun, but Uncle Vernon's second ornament narrowly missed his left ear, and on balance he thought it best to leave the situation to Mr. Weasley.**

"Ah, don't go Prongslet; I want to see how bad it gets."

The other Marauders agreed, but Lily just rolled her eyes.

**He stepped into the fire, looking over his shoulder as he said "the Burrow!" His last fleeting glimpse of the living room was of Mr. Weasley blasting a third ornament out of Uncle Vernon's hand with his wand, Aunt Petunia screaming and lying on top of Dudley, and Dudley's tongue lolling around like a great slimy python. But next moment Harry had begun to spin very fast, and the Dursleys' living room was whipped out of sight in a rush of emerald-green flames.**

"That's the end of the chapter," Lily said.

"He sure likes to leave the Dursleys in style," laughed peter

"It's my turn to read," Peter said excitedly.

* * *

**authors note: thanks for reading please review**

**PS Snape will be going in but first i think im going to put someone in who knows his future influence in the war any suggestions of who to bring from the future**


	6. Chapter 6: WWW

Chapter six

Weasley's Wizard Wheezes

**"Weasley's Wizard Wheezes,"**James read.

"What's that?" Sirius questioned.

"I'm betting it has something to do with those clever, clever twins," commented Peter.

"I'll take that bet!" shouted Sirius.

"Sirius, you realise Peter has the book and probably already knows what it refers to."

Sirius mumbled "shut up," before sitting down chastised

**Harry spun faster and faster, elbows tucked tightly to his sides, blurred fireplaces flashing past him, until he started to feel sick and closed his eyes. Then, when at last he felt himself slowing down, he threw out his hands and came to a halt in time to prevent himself from falling face forward out of the Weasleys' kitchen fire.**

**"Did he eat it?" said Fred excitedly, holding out a hand to pull Harry to his feet.**

"You bet your arse he did!" Sirius cheered.

"It was freakin' brilliant," James added.

"I have said it once, I will say it again they are brilliant, True Marauders," Commented Sirius.

"**Yeah," said Harry, straightening up. "What was it?"**

"**Ton-Tongue Toffee," said Fred brightly. "George and I invented them,**

"Wait what?" Sirius said stunned.

"They invented them," Remus repeated.

"No way," Sirius said suddenly pouting.

"What's up with him?" Lily asked in response, she presumed that, from his nature, Sirius would love the invention of a prank.

"They invented them," Sirius looking at Remus who was now shaking his head silently laughing.

"What's the matter with him?" Lily asked again.

"He just upset because he thinks their better than us," Peter said laughing.

"No..." Sirius cried desperately he turned hopefully to look at James, "they can't be better. We're supposed to be the best Hogwarts has ever known"

"No we must still be cooler, I mean they don't appear to be day to day pranksters they same to go for more extravagant pranks.

"But if they can create the toffees, they can make more inventions..." Remus said ginning devilishly toward his friend. "I don't know Padfoot, they might be cooler."

"That is true Moony; do you think that they could have more inventions?" James asked.

"Well, Weasley's Wizard Wheezes does sound like an excellent name for a joke shop," Remus added.

"You think they own a joke shop?" Sirius said suddenly beaming.

"Um... it's possible," Remus said unsurely, he had expected Sirius to be disappointed again.

"That's awesome, if their ideas are like the toffee then they'll do incredibly," Sirius nearly proclaimed at the top of his voice.

"But they're still cooler then us," Remus said.

"But we'll get to see everything they create," Sirius said suddenly bouncing with excitement.

Remus just rolled his eyes.

Peter carried on

**and we've been looking for someone to test them on all summer…"**

**The tiny kitchen exploded with laughter; Harry looked around and saw that Ron and George were sitting at the scrubbed wooden table with two red-haired people Harry had never seen before, though he knew immediately who they must be: Bill and Charlie, the two eldest Weasley brothers.**

"Really, how many children could Molly possibly have?" Lily asked.

Sirius whispered something to Peter who started to immediately giggle squeakily.

"What?" asked the other Marauders.

Peter still laughing told them that "Sirius explained that he holds the dearest desire to trade places with Arthur, as him and Molly must have been at it like rabbits."

"That's not what I said. I said..." started Sirius before Peter interrupted

"I know that I just had to clean up the filth from your mouth, I mean what you said about the usage of ice cream is so disgusting that I don't even want to consider thinking about it again"

Sirius shut up immediately, Peter letting slip his fetish put him in his place.

"**How're you doing, Harry?" said the nearer of the two, grinning at him and holding out a large hand, which Harry shook, feeling calluses and blisters under his fingers. This had to be Charlie, who worked with dragons in Romania. Charlie was built like the twins, shorter and stockier than Percy and Ron, who were both long and lanky. He had a broad, good-natured face, which was weather-beaten and so freckly that he looked almost tanned; his arms were muscular, and one of them had a large, shiny burn on it.**

"Charlie is definitely someone you want to stay on the good side off," Prongs commented.

**Bill got to his feet, smiling, and also shook Harry's hand. Bill came as something of a surprise. Harry knew that he worked for the wizarding bank, Gringotts, and that Bill had been Head Boy at Hogwarts; Harry had always imagined Bill to be an older version of Percy: fussy about rule-breaking and fond of bossing everyone around.**

**However, Bill was - there was no other word for it - cool. He was tall, with long hair that he had tied back in a ponytail. He was wearing an earring with what looked like a fang dangling from it. Bill's clothes would not have looked out of place at a rock concert, except that Harry recognized his boots to be made, not of leather, but of dragon hide.**

"He does sound cool," Lily said dreamily.

James jealously jumped up onto his chair and tried to do a back flip to impress Lily, unfortunately he fell into a heap on the floor.

The other marauders laughed at James' attention seeking ploy.

**Before any of them could say anything else, there was a faint popping noise, and Mr. Weasley appeared out of thin air at George's shoulder. He was looking angrier than Harry had ever seen him.**

"How bad was it?" Sirius asked.

"Let me finish and we might eventually find out" muttered Peter

"**That wasn't funny Fred!"**

"Yes it was," laughed Sirius and James just thinking of the memory

**he shouted. "What on earth did you give that Muggle boy?"**

"**I didn't give him anything," said Fred, with another evil grin. "I just dropped it… It was his fault he went and ate it, I never told him to."**

"**You dropped it on purpose!" roared Mr. Weasley. "You knew he'd eat it, you knew he was on a diet -"**

"**How big did his tongue get?" George asked eagerly.**

"**It was four feet long before his parents would let me shrink it!"**

"Why did he tell them?" Lily asked.

"I have the feeling he was rather amused himself," Remus said laughing along with his friends.

**Harry and the Weasleys roared with laughter again.**

"**It isn't funny!" Mr. Weasley shouted. "That sort of behavior seriously undermines wizard-Muggle relations! I spend half my life campaigning against the mistreatment of Muggles, and my own sons."**

"They didn't do it because he was a Muggle," Sirius said.

"They did it because he a fat git," James added.

"**We didn't give it to him because he's a Muggle!" said Fred indignantly.**

**"No, we gave it to him because he's a great bullying git," said George. "Isn't he, Harry?"**

"OOH creepy," Interjected Lily. "Marauder clones!"

"**Yeah, he is, Mr. Weasley," said Harry earnestly.**

"**That's not the point!" raged Mr. Weasley. "You wait until I tell your mother -"**

"**Tell me what?" said a voice behind them.**

"Oh I don't think he was expecting that!" commented Peter

**Mrs. Weasley had just entered the kitchen. She was a short, plump woman with a very kind face, though her eyes were presently narrowed with suspicion.**

"**Oh hello, Harry, dear," she said, spotting him and smiling. Then her eyes snapped back to her husband. "Tell me what, Arthur?"**

**Mr. Weasley hesitated. Harry could tell that, however angry he was with Fred and George, he hadn't really intended to tell Mrs. Weasley what had happened. There was a silence, while Mr. Weasley eyed his wife nervously. Then two girls appeared in the kitchen doorway behind Mrs. Weasley. One, with very bushy brown hair and rather large front teeth,**

"What a lovely descriptive mind your son has, Prongs," Joked Sirius.

"Yeah... well... uh... shut up," Mumbled James.

"great comeback their James, very... witty," supplied Sirius with a grin.

James replied "yeah well at least he doesn't have an ice cream fetish" bringing up the earlier comment.

"Wish I had never said anything," grumbled Sirius darkly.

**was Harry's and Ron's friend, Hermione Granger. The other, who was small and red-haired, was Ron's younger sister, Ginny.**

"Brilliantly imaginative imagery once more, from the mind of that boy," added Remus

"It's like she is sitting right in front of me," added Peter "oh wait that's just lily,"

"HEY, I AM NOT SMALL IM TALLER THAN YOU, YOU BLOODY HOBBIT!" shouted Lily at a cowering Peter.

**Both of them smiled at Harry, who grinned back, which made Ginny go scarlet - she had been very taken with Harry ever since his first visit to the Burrow.**

"Someone has a crush," sang Sirius teasingly.

"**Tell me what, Arthur?" Mrs. Weasley repeated, in a dangerous sort of voice.**

**"It's nothing, Molly," mumbled Mr. Weasley, "Fred and George just - but I've had words with them -"**

"**What have they done this time?" said Mrs. Weasley. "If it's got anything to do with Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes -"**

"**Why don't you show Harry where he's sleeping, Ron?" said Hermione from the doorway.**

"**He knows where he's sleeping," said Ron, "in my room, he slept there last -"**

"Oh come on man, get out of there while you still can."

"**We can all go," said Hermione pointedly.**

"**Oh," said Ron, cottoning on. "Right."**

"**Yeah, we'll come too," said George.**

"Like that will work."

"**You stay where you are!" snarled Mrs. Weasley.**

**Harry and Ron edged out of the kitchen, and they, Hermione, and Ginny set off along the narrow hallway and up the rickety staircase that zigzagged through the house to the upper stories.**

"**What are Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes?" Harry asked as they climbed.**

**Ron and Ginny both laughed, although Hermione didn't.**

"Where's you sense of humour Hermione," Sirius asked.

"You know you just asked a book a question, right?" questioned Lily

"I can see how you might think that, but..." Sirius said.

They all sat their looking at Sirius as if he was going to continue.

...

"Sirius... but what?"

"Oh I was just hoping for a flash of light and Hermione to drop into the room,"

"**Mum found this stack of order forms when she was cleaning Fred and George's room," said Ron quietly. "Great long price lists for stuff they've invented. Joke stuff, you know. Fake wands and trick sweets, loads of stuff. It was brilliant, I never knew they'd been inventing all that…"**

"**We've been hearing explosions out of their room for ages, but we never thought they were actually making things," said Ginny. "We thought they just liked the noise."**

"That's great," James and Sirius said laughing.

"Says the two that do make explosions just because they enjoy the noise," Remus said.

"Oi."

"**Only, most of the stuff - well, all of it, really - was a bit dangerous," said Ron, "and, you know, they were planning to sell it at Hogwarts to make some money, and Mum went mad at them. Told them they weren't allowed to make any more of it, and burned all the order forms… She's furious at them anyway. They didn't get as many O.W.L.s as she expected."**

"I wonder why they didn't," Lily said thoughtfully. "They obvious have enough talent to have gotten better grades."

"Why waste your time with grades..." Started James

"When you could be inventing more AWESOME pranks!" continued sirius

"I still don't get it," Lily huffed.

"Of course _you_ don't love," James said smiling pulling her closer to him.

**O.W.L.s were Ordinary Wizarding Levels, the examinations Hogwarts students took at the age of fifteen.**

**"And then there was this big row," Ginny said, "because Mum wants them to go into the Ministry of Magic like Dad, and they told her all they want to do is open a joke shop."**

"Who wants to work at the bloody Ministry?" Sirius said.

"Sirius, don't you want to be an Auror," James asked.

"Um..."

"That's what I thought."

**Just then a door on the second landing opened, and a face poked out wearing horn-rimmed glasses and a very annoyed expression.**

"**Hi, Percy," said Harry.**

"**Oh hello, Harry," said Percy. "I was wondering who was making all the noise. I'm trying to work in here, you know I've got a report to finish for the office – and it's rather difficult to concentrate when people keep thundering up and down the stairs."**

"Aren't they only going up the stairs?"

"**We're not thundering, "said Ron irritably. "We're walking. Sorry if we've disturbed the top-secret workings of the Ministry of Magic."**

**"What are you working on?" said Harry.**

"Argh, why did you ask that, pup?" Sirius said exasperated.

"He was just being polite," Lily said.

"But now that prat is going to prattle on..."started Sirius

"and on..." added Peter

"and on..." added James

"and on..." added Remus

"and on..." added Sirius

"and on..." added Peter

"and on..." added James

"all right I get it" interjected Lily before it got out of hand completely

**"A report for the Department of International Magical Cooperation," said Percy smugly. "We're trying to standardize cauldron thickness. Some of these foreign imports are just a shade too thin - leakages have been increasing at a rate of almost three percent a year -"**

"**That'll change the world, that report will," said Ron. "Front page of the Daily Prophet, I expect, cauldron leaks."**

**Percy went slightly pink.**

"**You might sneer, Ron," he said heatedly, "but unless some sort of international law is imposed we might well find the market flooded with flimsy, shallow bottomed products that seriously endanger -"**

"And that would be just dreadful."

"**Yeah, yeah, all right," said Ron, and he started off upstairs again. Percy slammed his bedroom door shut. As Harry, Hermione, and Ginny followed Ron up three more flights of stairs, shouts from the kitchen below echoed up to them. It sounded as though Mr. Weasley had told Mrs. Weasley about the toffees. The room at the top of the house where Ron slept looked much as it had the last time that Harry had come to stay: the same posters of Ron's favorite Quidditch team, the Chudley Cannons, were whirling and waving on the walls and sloping ceiling, and the fish tank on the windowsill, which had previously held frog spawn, now contained one extremely large frog. Ron's old rat, Scabbers, was here no more,**

Everyone glares at Peter, he even tried to glare at himself, which really was a sight to behold.

**but instead there was the tiny gray owl that had delivered Ron's letter to Harry in Privet Drive. It was hopping up and down in a small cage and twittering madly.**

"**Shut up, Pig," said Ron, edging his way between two of the four beds that had been squeezed into the room. "Fred and George are in here with us, because Bill and Charlie are in their room," he told Harry. "Percy gets to keep his room all to himself because he's got to work."**

"**Er - why are you calling that owl Pig?" Harry asked Ron.**

"**Because he's being stupid," said Ginny, "Its proper name is Pigwidgeon."**

"**Yeah, and that's not a stupid name at all," said Ron sarcastically. "Ginny named him," he explained to Harry. "She reckons it's sweet. And I tried to change it, but it was too late, he won't answer to anything else. So now he's Pig. I've got to keep him up here because he annoys Errol and Hermes. He annoys me too, come to that."**

**Pigwidgeon zoomed happily around his cage, hooting shrilly. Harry knew Ron too well to take him seriously. He had moaned continually about his old rat, Scabbers, but had been most upset when Hermione's cat, Crookshanks, appeared to have eaten him.**

Peter gulped.

"**Where's Crookshanks?" Harry asked Hermione now.**

"**Out in the garden, I expect," she said. "He likes chasing gnomes. He's never seen any before."**

"**Percy's enjoying work, then?" said Harry, sitting down on one of the beds and watching the Chudley Cannons zooming in and out of the posters on the ceiling.**

"Seriously, stop asking about that prat."

"**Enjoying it?" said Ron darkly. "I don't reckon he'd come home if Dad didn't make him. He's obsessed. Just don't get him onto the subject of his boss. According to Mr. Crouch… as I was saying to Mr. Crouch… Mr. Crouch is of the opinion… Mr. Crouch was telling me… They'll be announcing their engagement any day now."**

"**Have you had a good summer, Harry?" said Hermione. "Did you get our food parcels and everything?"**

"**Yeah, thanks a lot," said Harry. "They saved my life, those cakes."**

"You had better have eaten those healthy snacks from Hermione," commented Lily

" Now who's talking to the book," asked Sirius slyly

"**And have you heard from -?" Ron began, but at a look from Hermione he fell silent.**

"Why, he was going to ask about me?" Sirius asked.

"That's why?"

"What's the..."

"They didn't want to it say in front of Ginny," Lily huffed. "Like she would have told on them."

**Harry knew Ron had been about to ask about Sirius. Ron and Hermione had been so deeply involved in helping Sirius escape from the Ministry of Magic that they were almost as concerned about Harry's godfather as he was.**

"Thanks," Sirius smiled.

**However, discussing him in front of Ginny was a bad idea. Nobody but themselves and Professor Dumbledore knew about how Sirius had escaped, or believed in his innocence.**

"**I think they've stopped arguing," said Hermione, to cover the awkward moment, because Ginny was looking curiously from Ron to Harry. "Shall we go down and help your mum with dinner?"**

"**Yeah, all right," said Ron. The four of them left Ron's room and went back downstairs to find Mrs. Weasley alone in the kitchen, looking extremely bad-tempered.**

"**We're eating out in the garden," she said when they came in. "There's just not room for eleven people in here. Could you take the plates outside, girls? Bill and Charlie are setting up the tables. Knives and forks, please, you two," she said to Ron and Harry, pointing her wand a little more vigorously than she had intended at a pile of potatoes in the sink, which shot out of their skins so fast that they ricocheted off the walls and ceiling.**

"**Oh for heaven's sake," she snapped, now directing her wand at a dustpan, which hopped off the sideboard and started skating across the floor, scooping up the potatoes. "Those two!" she burst out savagely, now pulling pots and pans out of a cupboard, and Harry knew she meant Fred and George. "I don't know what's going to happen to them, I really don't. No ambition, unless you count making as much trouble as they possibly can…"**

"A very valid ambition," James and Sirius shouted.

"Gits," Lily said shaking her head.

**Mrs. Weasley slammed a large copper saucepan down on the kitchen table and began to wave her wand around inside it. A creamy sauce poured from the wand tip as she stirred.**

"**It's not as though they haven't got brains," she continued irritably, taking the saucepan over to the stove and lighting it with a further poke of her wand, "but they're wasting them, and unless they pull themselves together soon, they'll be in real trouble. I've had more owls from Hogwarts about them than the rest put together. If they carry on the way they're going, they'll end up in front of the Improper Use of Magic Office."**

**Mrs. Weasley jabbed her wand at the cutlery drawer, which shot open. Harry and Ron both jumped out of the way as several knives soared out of it, flew across the kitchen, and began chopping the potatoes, which had just been tipped back into the sink by the dustpan.**

"**I don't know where we went wrong with them," said Mrs. Weasley,**

"You didn't go wrong, they just enjoy a laugh," Lily said.

"You think they're all right?" James questioned.

"Yeah sure why not? They know what they want to do, and they are trying their hardest to make it happen. I mean a joke shop isn't exactly a important job..." Lily said.

"Yes it is," James and Sirius interrupted.

"But it does seem like something they'll be suited for," Lily continued like she didn't hear them. "I'm sure once Molly settles down she'll realize that."

**putting down her wand and starting to pull out still more saucepans. "It's been the same for years, one thing after another, and they won't listen to - OH NOT AGAIN!"**

Of course Peter yelled the last part.

"Now that's the way you're suppose to read it," Sirius said looking at Lily, she just made a face at him.

**She had picked up her wand from the table, and it had emitted a loud squeak and turned into a giant rubber mouse. "One of their fake wands again!" she shouted. "How many times have I told them not to leave them lying around?"**

The marauders laughed.

"They made those, they sound awesome," James managed to say.

"They'll do brilliantly in their joke shop," Sirius added.

**She grabbed her real wand and turned around to find that the sauce on the stove was smoking.**

"**C'mon," Ron said hurriedly to Harry, seizing a handful of cutlery from the open drawer, "let's go and help Bill and Charlie."**

**They left Mrs. Weasley and headed out the back door into the yard.**

**They had only gone a few paces when Hermione's bandy-legged ginger cat, Crookshanks, came pelting out of the garden, bottle-brush tail held high in the air, chasing what looked like a muddy potato on legs. Harry recognized it instantly as a gnome. Barely ten inches high, its horny little feet pattered very fast as it sprinted across the yard and dived headlong into one of the Wellington boots that lay scattered around the door. Harry could hear the gnome giggling madly as Crookshanks inserted a paw into the boot, trying to reach it. Meanwhile, a very loud crashing noise was coming from the other side of the house. The source of the commotion was revealed as they entered the garden, and saw that Bill and Charlie both had their wands out, and were making two battered old tables fly high above the lawn, smashing into each other,**

"Awesome," James and Sirius cheer.

**each attempting to knock the other's out of the air. Fred and George were cheering, Ginny was laughing, and Hermione was hovering near the hedge, apparently torn between amusement and anxiety. Bill's table caught Charlie's with a huge bang and knocked one of its legs off. There was a clatter from overhead, and they all looked up to see Percy's head poking out of a window on the second floor.**

"**Will you keep it down?" he bellowed.**

"Come on prat, they were having fun."

"**Sorry, Perce," said Bill, grinning. "How're the cauldron bottoms coming on?"**

"**Very badly," said Percy peevishly, and he slammed the window shut. Chuckling, Bill and Charlie directed the tables safely onto the grass, end to end, and then, with a flick of his wand, Bill reattached the table leg and conjured tablecloths from nowhere.**

**By seven o'clock, the two tables were groaning under dishes and dishes of Mrs. Weasley's excellent cooking, and the nine Weasleys, Harry, and Hermione were settling themselves down to eat beneath a clear, deep-blue sky. To somebody who had been living on meals of increasingly****stale cake all summer, this was paradise,**

"Actually I think it would be paradise even without that," Sirius said dreamily. "When are we eating lunch?"

"After the next chapter," Lily said, she really wanted to read and didn't want to wait until after lunch.

"You're killing me here," Sirius said.

**and at first, Harry listened rather than talked as he helped himself to chicken and ham pie, boiled potatoes, and salad.**

"Oh, stop mentioning food pup."

**At the far end of the table, Percy was telling his father all about his report on cauldron bottoms.**

**"I've told Mr. Crouch that I'll have it ready by Tuesday," Percy was saying pompously. "That's a bit sooner than he expected it, but I like to keep on top of things. I think he'll be grateful I've done it in good time, I mean, its extremely busy in our department just now, what with all the arrangements for the World Cup. We're just not getting the support we need from the Department of Magical Games and Sports. Ludo Bagman -"**

"Bagman, as in the beater for the Wimbourne Wasps," James said excitedly.

"Who?" asked Lily

"He's bloody awesome, I remember when I say him hit a Bludger and it just soared straight across the pitch and smashed Dostoevsky in the jaw ..." James said dreamy until Lily hit him in the back of the head. "Ouch, what was that for?"

"No Quidditch," Lily said and won't budge even with James giving her his best puppy dog face.

"**I like Ludo," said Mr. Weasley mildly. "He was the one who got us such good tickets for the Cup. I did him a bit of a favor: His brother, Otto, got into a spot of trouble - a lawnmower with unnatural powers - I smoothed the whole thing over."**

"**Oh Bagman's likable enough, of course," said Percy dismissively, "but how he ever got to be Head of Department… when I compare him to Mr. Crouch! I can't see Mr. Crouch losing a member of our department and not trying to find out what's happened to them. You realize Bertha Jorkins has been missing for over a month now? Went on holiday to Albania and never came back?"**

"**Yes, I was asking Ludo about that," said Mr. Weasley, frowning. "He says Bertha's gotten lost plenty of times before now - though must say, if it was someone in my department, I'd be worried…"**

"**Oh Bertha's hopeless, all right," said Percy. "I hear she's been shunted from department to department for years, much more trouble than she's worth… but all the same, Bagman ought to be trying to find her. Mr. Crouch has been taking a personal interest, she worked in our department at one time, you know, and I think Mr. Crouch was quite fond of her - but Bagman just keeps laughing and saying she probably misread the map and ended up in Australia instead of Albania. However" - Percy heaved an impressive sigh and took a deep swig of elderflower wine - "we've got quite enough on our plates at the Department of International Magical Cooperation without trying to find members of other departments too. As you know, we've got another big event to organize right after the World Cup."**

**Percy cleared his throat significantly and looked down toward the end of the table where Harry, Ron, and Hermione were sitting. "You know the one I'm talking about, Father." He raised his voice slightly. "The top-secret one."**

"Prat, he's trying to rub their noses in it."

**Ron rolled his eyes and muttered to Harry and Hermione, "He's been trying to get us to ask what that event is ever since he started work. Probably an exhibition of thick-bottomed cauldrons."**

**In the middle of the table, Mrs. Weasley was arguing with Bill about his earring, which seemed to be a recent acquisition.**

"… **with a horrible great fang on it. Really, Bill, what do they say at the bank?"**

"Goblin don't care what you look like, all they care about is the money you give them," Remus scoffed.

"**Mum, no one at the bank gives a damn how I dress as long as I bring home plenty of treasure," said Bill patiently.**

"oh not another marauder clone" grumbled Lily

"**And your hair's getting silly, dear," said Mrs. Weasley, fingering her wand lovingly." I wish you'd let me give it a trim…"**

"**I like it," said Ginny, who was sitting beside Bill. "You're so old-fashioned, Mum. Anyway, it's nowhere near as long as Professor Dumbledore's…"**

**Next to Mrs. Weasley, Fred, George, and Charlie were all talking spiritedly about the World Cup.**

"**It's got to be Ireland," said Charlie thickly, through a mouthful of potato. "They flattened Peru in the semifinals."**

"**Bulgaria has got Viktor Krum, though," said Fred.**

"**Krum's one decent player, Ireland has got seven," said Charlie shortly. **

"Yes, but everyone knows it doesn't matter what the team is like it eventually just come down to the seeker," added Lily

James gasped in abject horror "Lils take it back I'm important to gryff's team aren't I?"

"Ok fine your important... now let's carry on."

**"I wish England had got through. That was embarrassing, that was."**

"**What happened?" said Harry eagerly, regretting more than ever his isolation from the wizarding world when he was stuck on Privet Drive.**

"**Went down to Transylvania, three hundred and ninety to ten," said Charlie gloomily.**

"Ugh," James sighed.

"**Shocking performance. And Wales lost to Uganda, and Scotland was slaughtered by Luxembourg."**

**Harry had been on the Gryffindor House Quidditch team ever since his first year at Hogwarts and owned one of the best racing brooms in the world, a Firebolt. Flying came more naturally to Harry than anything else in the magical world, and he played in the position of Seeker on the Gryffindor House team.**

"OH my god, first year he must be amazing, even I had to wait till second year he must be the youngest seeker in over a century!" James shouted.

**Mr. Weasley conjured up candles to light the darkening garden before they had their homemade strawberry ice cream, and by the time they had finished, moths were fluttering low over the table, and the warm air was perfumed with the smells of grass and honeysuckle. Harry was feeling extremely well fed and at peace with the world as he watched several gnomes sprinting through the rosebushes, laughing madly and closely pursued by Crookshanks.**

**Ron looked carefully up the table to check that the rest of the family were all busy talking, then he said very quietly to Harry, "So - have you heard from Sirius lately?"**

**Hermione looked around, listening closely.**

"**Yeah," said Harry softly, "twice. He sounds okay. I wrote to him yesterday. He might write back while I'm here."**

**He suddenly remembered the reason he had written to Sirius, and for a moment was on the verge of telling Ron and Hermione about his scar hurting again, and about the dream that had awoken him… but he really didn't want to worry them just now, not when he himself was feeling so happy and peaceful.**

"**Look at the time," Mrs. Weasley said suddenly, checking her wristwatch. "You really should be in bed, the whole lot of you you'll be up at the crack of dawn to get to the Cup. Harry, if you leave your school list out, I'll get your things for you tomorrow in Diagon Alley. I'm getting everyone else's. There might not be time after the World Cup, the match went on for five days last time."**

"**Wow - hope it does this time!" said Harry enthusiastically.**

"That would be awesome," James said bouncing again.

"**Well, I certainly don't," said Percy sanctimoniously. "I shudder to think what the state of my in-tray would be if I was away from work for five days."**

"**Yeah, someone might slip dragon dung in it again, eh, Perce?" said Fred.**

"**That was a sample of fertilizer from Norway!" said Percy, going very red in the face. "It was nothing personal!"**

"**It was," Fred whispered to Harry as they got up from the table. "We sent it."**

"That was the end of the chapter," Peter said as he laughed at the twins prank.

"My turn," Lily beamed.

(A/N) Sorry for the massive wait guys, I'm sure many thought I was dead; and hey their were rumours; but I got distracted by a great many things.

(Gcse's, school, hit by a bus, teenage angst) you know just every day stuff

Btw I don't recommend walking in front of a bus it's not fun but hey i digress

I don't know whether I will be doing books 5, 6 and 7 it will depend on how I feel after this

Once again sorry for not updating in like forever but hope you enjoy this and I will hopefully get back into writing.

Oh and please visit: /user/forestcat123?feature=mhee

It's just some videos of cats but hey i had a lot of time and was bored


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